- European government bonds closed lower in the session after the release of stronger than expected confidence figures in Italy, France, and Belgium. - The focus in today's session will fall upon IFO data in Germany, due out at 4:30 ET. The business climate, current assessment, and expectations figures are all expected to fall slightly from January. Belgian business confidence, which is often viewed as an indication on where the IFO data may land, came in at 3.5 yesterday, well above esimates of 2.2. - Additionally, Italy is set to sell â¬2.5B in 2-Year zero coupon bonds. Results are due just after 5:00 ET. - Over in the UK gilts traded lower for the entire session tracking their European counter parts. - The UK DMO sold £2.75B in 4.0% 2016 with an average yield of 4.90%, and a bid-to-cover of 2.22. The bid-to-cover was above the neutral range of 2.0 to 2.1, and below the previous bid-to-cover of 2.3. There was a 0.1 basis point yield tail on the auction. - The focus in today's session will be preliminary Q4 GDP data. GDP is expected to remain unchanged from the previous reading at 0.8% Q/Q and 3.0% y/y, and is due out at 4:30 ET.