The cost of protecting European debt was unchanged in early morning trading on Thursday. Liquidity was low, with investors said to awaiting the New Year before making further decisions.

“”There’s little liquidity in the market, while the volume is thin,” said Rajeev Shah, a credit strategist at BNP Paribas. “People aren’t participating in the market and all the negative news filtering out isn’t helping. People are waiting until the new year to see what the mandate is, rather than jumping in. There’s a lot of negative news out in terms of banks, with Morgan Stanley taking bigger losses. The injection of the Central Banks seems to be helping the money markets in the short term in terms of Libor but there’s no real conviction in the credit or equity markets.”

The iTraxx Crossover index of mostly junk-rated corporate debt was unchanged at 348bp, according to BNP Paribas prices. That means it cost the same amount to protect €10m worth of Crossover debt against default over five years than it did on Wednesday.

The iTraxx Europe index of investment grade corporate debt was 1bp wider at 53bp, from the close of trading Wednesday.