Someone suggested to us that BTPs are widening because it is Friday and investors are exposed to headline risks so close long positions...

France is selling a slightly elevated €8-9bn mainly because waiting in the wings is the exceptionally large redemption and coupon payment on Oct 25. A large chunk of the €28bn redemption (coupons do not get reinvested) will be held within the PSPP portfolio and so will need to be reinvested by the ECB back into the French market in the two month period after the redemption.

New York Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams has talked about monetary policy returning to “normal,” but Chicago Fed President Charles Evans has a different take.

The ECB's Asset purchase programme dropped from €30bn to €15bn from October 1st and so the redemptions will weight far heavier as time progresses. It also means that PSPP support will vary more between countries. Great if there is a redemption, less great if not.

Data captures continued weakness in USTs which were under pressure ahead of the FOMC meeting with the curve bear flattening. Data shows leveraged investors backed off record shorts in TY while adding steepener exposure further with net shorts in WN hitting another record. Large spec were sellers across most of the curve with combined sales in TY/US/WN totalling $12.7m/01. Asst Mgrs continued to add duration across much of the curve with record net long positions in TY & WN contracts

WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell was as clear as a monetary policymaker can be Wednesday, elaborating on the Federal Open Market Committee's latest "normalization" move: so long as the economy fulfills expectations the Fed will keep raising short-term interest rates, but not with any particular objective of becoming restrictive.

Data capture the continued sell-off following the strong Sept NFP/AHE data which sent long-end yields back near the highs from May. Data shows leveraged investors used the sharp sell-off in the front-end to scale back on some net short positions – buying 166k in ED$ contracts and a combined $5.3m/01 in TU & FV contracts. Further out the curve however, they continued to sell TY & WN where net shorts hit another record.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell should have no trouble getting support for an increase in the federal funds rate at the Federal Open Market Committee's late September meeting -- what would be the third since he took over from Janet Yellen in February and the eighth since the FOMC stopped holding rates near zero in December 2015.

Federal Reserve Chairmen have sometimes broken news and moved markets in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. So speculation is rampant about what Jerome Powell might say when his turn comes Friday to keynote the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank's annual symposium.

Although the U.S. economy has seldom looked better, Federal Reserve Chairman Jeremy Powell and his colleagues will make monetary policy under a couple of clouds when they convene their July 31-Aug. 1 Federal Open Market Committee meeting