UPDATE 1-Pessimism on Italy, U.S. tech earnings push German yields to 6-week low

After the meeting, euro zone money markets pushed back expectations of a 10 basis point hike to December next year, from October 2019 on Monday.

German borrowing costs hit a six-week low as pessimism over Italian budget talks and disappointing updates from U.S. tech giants Amazon and Google drove investors to the safety of the world's best-rated government bonds.

Eurozone yields were already near lows on Thursday after the European Central Bank stuck to plans to claw back stimulus, but its chief Mario Draghi acknowledged a loss of growth momentum and a "bunch of uncertainties" ahead.

After the meeting, euro zone money markets pushed back expectations of a 10 basis point hike to December next year, from October 2019 on Monday.

On top of this, U.S. Treasury yields fell close to two-week lows overnight on the back of a lower-than-expected holiday season sales outlook from Amazon and a revenue estimate miss from Google-owner Alphabet Inc.

European stocks were down a hefty 1.5 per cent on Friday morning, over eight per cent this month so far, setting them up for their biggest monthly fall since 2011.

"Expectations for U.S. company earnings is quite high, so whenever they are not being met, the reactions are quite severe," said BayernLB credit strategist Miraji Othman.

"You also have the risk factors regarding Italy and its budget deficit. Everything comes together at the moment and have left people quite pessimistic," he said.

German Bunds, seen as one of the world's safest and most liquid assets, saw their yields drop four basis points to 0.359 percent in early trade on Friday; 20 bps lower than where it was just two weeks ago.

Most other euro zone bond yields were two to four basis points lower.

ITALY RATING

Italian bonds weakened along with European stocks and ahead of a rating review from S&P Global due later on Friday. The rating agency currently has Italy at a BBB rating with a stable outlook.

Italy's two-year yields were five basis points higher at 1.53 percent, and five-year yields were up four bps at 2.87 percent.

The country's 10-year yields were up three basis points to around 3.53 percent and the closely-watched spread over Germany was at 316 bps.

Expectations among analysts are divided on whether the agency will downgrade Italy to its last investment grade rating or only change the outlook to negative.

Moody's last week downgraded Italy to Baa3, just a notch above junk, but said the outlook was stable, leading to something of a relief rally.

"The Moody's decision has taken some of the pressure off Italy. I think S&P is more likely to change the outlook," said Othman of BayernLB.