Euro zone bond yields tick up; focus on ECB minutes

Euro zone bond yields rose early on Thursday, with investors expected to focus on the European Central Bank's October meeting minutes, in an otherwise quiet session with U.S. markets closed for Thanksgiving. With European stock markets up in early trade, safe-haven bond yields edged higher, with Germany's 10-year yield up about a basis point to -0.57%.


Reuters | Updated: 26-11-2020 13:58 IST | Created: 26-11-2020 13:58 IST
Euro zone bond yields tick up; focus on ECB minutes

Euro zone bond yields rose early on Thursday, with investors expected to focus on the European Central Bank's October meeting minutes, in an otherwise quiet session with U.S. markets closed for Thanksgiving.

With European stock markets up in early trade, safe-haven bond yields edged higher, with Germany's 10-year yield up about a basis point to -0.57%. Southern European bond yields were also up. Italy's 10-year yield rose 1 basis point to 0.58%, after touching a record low 0.554% a day earlier.

Portugal's 10-year yield, which also touched a record low on Wednesday and is near 0% for the first time, was unchanged at 0.03% With U.S. markets off for Thanksgiving holiday and no major data releases due on Thursday, European investors will focus on European Central Bank minutes due at 1230 GMT for any clues about action it will take at its next meeting, in December.

The ECB had already committed at the October meeting to providing more stimulus in December. Policymakers led by Christine Lagarde said they will mainly look at more pandemic emergency bond purchases and cheap loans for banks when putting together the December stimulus package.

Those expectations have underpinned euro zone government bonds in recent weeks, which recovered from a sell-off on optimism around the coronavirus vaccines, and moves have been muted since. Given the commitment and amount of detail given by policymakers in recent weeks, analysts don't expect the minutes to have much effect on the market.

"Against that background, the minutes might be thin on actual news," ING analysts told clients, adding that a speech by board member and chief economist Philip Lane at 12:00 GMT may be more insightful.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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