• Italy sells 7B euros in one-year bills at a yield of 5.952%, down from 6.087%. Short-term funding rates have declined from last month’s rate of 6.087%. Spreads on the 10 year Italian bond to German bonds still widened slightly to 4.5%. From Bloomberg News.
• Greece opened talks with the EU, the IMF and bankers today. Inspectors from the EU, the ECB and the IMF will look at what progress the country has made on its first rescue plans. Banks will start to negotiate terms on voluntary debt restructuring. A new bailout plan is needed to avoid Greek default in 2012, and progress needs to be made before general elections February 19th. From Reuters News.
• The OECD indicator of economic activity across developed economies fell for the eighth strait month to 100.1 from 100.4 in September. Weakness is pronounced in euro zone countries like France, Germany, and Italy. Activity in Japan and Russia is predicted to be above trend. From the Wall Street Journal.