On the eve of the Easter long weekend and a major U.S. inflation statistic, the bond markets are showing signs of irregularity: the U.S. PCE index could either allay or reinforce concerns about the reawakening of inflation, and we'll have to wait until Monday to analyze Wall Street's reactions (which will be closed tomorrow).
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T-Bonds, which were down on Thursday morning, are stabilizing at 4.198% (perfect stability for the week), as are Bunds (+1Pt at 2.302%) and our OATs are tightening by +2.5Pts at 2.812%; the heaviness clearly prevails on Italian BTPs, which are down +7Pts at 3.683%.

The day was marked by the publication of the latest estimate of US GDP growth in Q4: it was revised upwards by +0.2% to 3.4% annualized, according to a third estimate from the Commerce Department.

This revision mainly reflects upward revisions to consumer spending and non-residential fixed investment, which were partly offset by a downward revision to investment in private inventories.
The University of Michigan's consumer confidence index finally improved in March, according to the final results of the University of Michigan's monthly survey published on Thursday.

The confidence index calculated on the basis of this survey of households rose to 79.4, up from 76.5 announced in the preliminary version, after 76.9 in February.

It was the component measuring consumers' judgment of their current situation that particularly improved, to 82.5 from 79.4 in February, while the sub-index measuring their expectations rose to 77.4, after 75.2 last month.

Above all, these results show a deterioration in consumer inflation expectations over a one-year horizon, now estimated at 2.9% instead of 3% last month.
The Labor Department announces 210.000 new US jobless claims for last week, down 2,000 on the previous week's revised figure (212,000 instead of 210,000).

The four-week moving average - more representative of the underlying trend - came out at 211.000, down 750 on the previous week's revised average.

Lastly, the week ended in the red for British Gilts, which tightened by +5Pts to 3.98%, but the past week ended with a virtual status quo (+1Pt only).



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