On the heels of yesterday’s Greek deficit plan and with Germany implicitly joining the list of rich uncle rescuers that include the US government (aka, the US taxpayer), Abu Dhabi, the IMF, and all other countries that helped their banking system, Greece will try sell up to 5b euros of 10 yr notes at a spread of about 300 bps to the mid swap rate, down from the 350 spread priced in the sale of 5 yr notes they sold last month. The issue is well oversubscribed. They need to refinance up to 23b euros of maturing debt coming in the Apr/May time frame. Greek stocks are rising to a one month high in response but the euro is lower as a sell on the news. The BoE and ECB kept policy on cruise control. ECB Pres Trichet will elaborate more at 8:30 on how he plans to maneuver thru wanting to exit some of their policies at the same time he deals with Greece, etc… and a very fragile economic situation. Feb US retail comps look good so far.
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