The Italian 10-year sold at 6.979% in a mixed though successful bond auction. Last month's auction saw yields of 7.56%.
The 10-year saw a 1.36 bid to cover ratio versus 1.34 in November.
The 3yr BTP auctioned at 5.62% with a bid to cover ratio of 1.36 (data via @gusbaratta).
Doug Kass tweets: "I give the Italian auction a grade of C+  - weakness seen in demand, bid to cover. But I of view that US equities will be relieved somewhat"
Traders say the ECB was buying bonds in this auction, according to Linkiesta's Fabrizio Goria.

European stock markets are mixed after the auction, Dow futures basically flat.

Hey, at least this auction went better than Hungary's.

Yesterday the 10-year fell to around 6.7% after a successful auction of short-term debt. Today, however, was rose ahead of the auction and seems to be rising after it.

 Here's a graph:

chart