Looks as though some of youse could do with some GOOD NEWS.....and I have it here......this is just great,Europe is looking better....read on:-
Italian Borrowing Costs Continue to Fall
Italian benchmark yields flirted with 6% after another solid debt auction, offering some optimism about the country's larger debt sales slated for Friday and Monday.
Key yields on debt from Spain, another financially stressed country, hovered around 5%, another sign of easing tensions within the euro zone amid optimism about talks surrounding a debt-restructuring deal for Greece, which is seeking its second international bailout.
Debt sales continue to benefit from the European Central Bank's loan to banks of nearly a half-trillion euros for three years in late December. Some analysts say lenders have used the cheap funding to buy government bonds. That is one reason that Italian 10-year bonds, trading above 7% late last year, have come down so sharply.
Thursday, the Italian Treasury sold the maximum targeted €4.5 billion ($5.90 billion) of zero-coupon two-year notes known as CTZs. The yield dropped to 3.763%, from 4.853% at a Dec. 28 sale of CTZs. The offer drew strong demand, with bids totaling €7.712 billion.
Italy, the euro-zone's third largest economy, also sold the maximum planned €500 million of an existing inflation-linked bond, or BTPei, that matures in September 2014, paying a yield of 3.20%.
The auction results augur well for its €11 billion offer of Treasury bills Friday and, to some extent, for its offer of as much as €8 billion in government bonds Monday, with maturities of 2016, 2017, 2021 and 2022.
Demand for longer debt is viewed as a better indicator of investor confidence in Italian government policies toward cutting its budget deficit and solving its financial problems.
Yields in the secondary market were falling ahead of Thursday's sales, driven by talk that private-sector creditors were willing to accept a coupon of below 4% on new Greek bonds in the write-down deal currently under negotiation. Italian bond redemption and coupon flows, available from Friday, may have helped to boost overall demand as well.
Italy's 10-year yield dropped to 6.062%, from 6.236% on Wednesday, according to Tradeweb, while the two-year yield fell to 3.632%, from 3.759%. Spain's 10-year yield declined to 4.991%, from 5.164%.
Outside the euro zone, Hungary paid sharply lower yields than two weeks ago, as it sold 48 billion Hungarian forints ($209 million), more than planned, of government bonds, the Government Debt Management Agency said.
Earlier Hungary's Premier Softens Stance "There are positive expectations regarding the government's talks with the International Monetary Fund and the European Union; until there's a deal done, careful optimism may be sustained. Then we expect further strengthening in Hungarian assets," said Sandor Jobbagy, an analyst at CIB Bank.
The agency sold 20 billion Hungarian forints of two-year bonds at an average yield of 8.44%, compared with 9.41% at the previous auction; 18 billion Hungarian forints of five-year bonds at 8.64%, compared with 9.41%, and 10 billion forints of 10-year bonds at 8.70%, compared with 9.38%.
Also boosting sentiment was a more conciliatory tone from Prime Minister Viktor Orban toward international bodies over the past week after weeks of combative rhetoric. He told Dow Jones Newswires that he would push Parliament to scrap parts of a new central-bank law the EU and IMF have said threatens the independence of the National Bank of Hungary. He also indicated he was willing to consider changes to legislation governing taxation and public debt.
Hungary, which has seen borrowing costs rise and its currency weaken, is seeking a safety net from the EU and IMF to protect itself against market turmoil
(20min delay)