LONDON: German Bund futures opened little changed on Tuesday, as the prospect of Spanish and Italian bond purchases by the European Central Bank cooled appetite for safe haven assets.
The ECB said last week it may resume buying bonds if troubled countries activate the euro zone's rescue funds and accepted strict conditions and supervision, bringing some relief to short-dated Italian and Spanish bonds.
Over recent days safe haven German government bond markets have been undecided on the potential success of future ECB interventions. On Thursday and Friday, Bund futures saw intra-day swings of over 200 ticks, while on Monday they stabilised just below the middle of that range.
At 0607 GMT on Tuesday, Bund futures were 5 ticks higher at 143.25, having opened at 143.08.
"Guesswork as to how forthcoming ECB/EU intervention might look continues," Commerzbank rate strategist Benjamin Schroeder said in a note, adding that last week's low of 142.64 could act as a lower bound for a new range in coming days.
Italian second-quarter gross domestic product data at 0900 GMT, is expected to show the economic contraction continues to deepen and may revive worries about the euro zone's ability to grow out of its debt crisis, thereby increasing demand for German Bunds again.
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