Markets

Bunds rise, expectations low for euro zone meeting

Published October 8, 2012 Updated October 8, 2012 06:38am

 

Euro zone finance ministers will formally launch the euro zone's permanent, 500-billion-euro bailout fund on Monday, and will also discuss an expected request by the Spanish government for a precautionary credit line from the ESM.

 

Expectations that Spain will ask for aid, which would likely trigger the European Central Bank's bond-buying program, has taken yields on Spanish bonds sharply lower but analysts say for them to remain low, action is necessary.

 

"The guessing game will continue but the market will increasingly realise that at the end of the day there will be more debt mutualisation coming through so we think Bunds remain vulnerable despite the sell-off we have seen on Friday after the payrolls," Rainer Guntermann, strategist at Commerzbank said.

 

German Bund futures were 42 ticks higher at the open at 141.27, having fallen 80 ticks on Friday as a surprise drop in US unemployment underpinned appetite for riskier assets.

 

"If anything our strategy recommendation would be to sell into strength," Guntermann said, adding there was support around 139.00.

 

Copyright Reuters, 2012