LONDON: German Bund futures were steady on Monday after rallying by almost a point in the previous session, with prospects for new action by global central banks limiting the appetite for safe haven assets.
Poor trade data out of China and factory output figures out of the euro zone raised worries about global growth last week, pushing German Bund futures 84 ticks higher on Friday.
But investors are also wary that a bleak economic output may lead to more central bank stimulus measures.
Late on Friday, the president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve, John Williams said the US central bank should launch a fresh round of bond-buying to lower the unemployment rate more quickly.
The European Central Bank is also expected to resume its bond-buying programme, but its condition that troubled countries need to activate the euro zone's rescue funds first and accept supervision has fueled uncertainty among investors.
At 0610 GMT, Bund futures were 3 ticks lower at 143.37. Bunds have been volatile recently as investors are wary of a potentially strong ECB intervention to ease Italy's and Spain's debt problems but are uncertain over when it would happen and how successful it would be.
"Friday was a good move, but they only got back some of the losses from earlier in the week," one trader said, adding he expected Bunds to remain range-bound until markets got more clarity about future ECB moves.
Italy, Germany and France plan to issue T-bills later in the day with the sales widely expected to go smoothly.
Finance Minister Vittorio Grilli told la Republica Italy's government would overshoot its 2012 deficit goal because of worse-than-expected growth but planned no extra budget cuts because Italy was on target to meet its EU obligations.
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