By William L. Watts
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The Spanish government on Thursday sold 2.468 billion euros ($3.24 billion) in three-year bonds at a maximum yield of around 3.8%, analysts said. The yield rose sharply from a previous sale, as expected given the recent selloff in peripheral euro-zone bond markets. The yield in a previous sale of the same issue was 2.52%. The three-year bond had traded in the 3.95% area ahead of the sale, said analysts at UniCredit Bank in Milan. Bids exceeded supply 2.27 times. The euro (EURUSD 1.3198, +0.0058, +0.4415%) pressed to a new session high versus the dollar after the results to trade at $1.3190, a gain of 0.6% from Wednesday. Spanish bond yields declined, narrowing the yield spread between 10-year Spanish and German bonds to around 2.39 percentage points versus more than 2.5 percentage points Wednesday.
