La cara Dhara ipotizza che c'è molta liquidità da piazzare per la chiusura di fine anno e con l'euruzz forte il Bund è un buon posto per investire
Euro debt-Ten-year ylds at 17-month low, bullish mood prevails
By Dhara Ranasinghe
LONDON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Ten-year euro zone government bond yields fell to their lowest level in almost 17 months on Tuesday on end-of-year bond buying and as the euro held near recent record highs against the dollar.
Weak euro zone economic growth data and a firm euro, which hurts exporters and undermines the economy, have pushed bond prices sharply higher this month -- taking 10-year yields to within half a percentage point of record lows hit in June 2003.
This move has encouraged investors to pile into the bond market before year-end book closing, analysts and traders say.
"Investors are looking at the year-end and need a place to invest," said Jeremy Stretch, senior fixed income strategist at RBC Capital Markets in London. "The bond market is holding up pretty well. With the euro threatening to hit new highs, this has dampened fears of higher interest rates and inflation."
At 1150 GMT, Germany's benchmark 10-year Bund yield <EU10YT=RR> was down 3.0 basis points (bps) at 3.74 percent, having hit a new 17-month low at 3.736 percent.
The interest rate sensitive two-year Schatz yield <EU2YT=RR> was down 2.8 bps at 2.37 percent, close to Monday's 7-month low at around 2.34 percent.
The euro was trading at around $1.2970 <EUR=>, within half a cent of last week's record high.
The December Bund future <FGBLZ4> was up 25 ticks, having broken chart levels to hit a fresh contract high above 118.00.
"The move in bonds is mostly liquidity-driven. People have money to put to work before year-end and are buying bonds," said one Frankfurt bond trader.
There was a dearth of euro zone data and focus turned to U.S. producer price numbers at 1330 GMT and U.S. September asset flow data later in the session.
"The flows data is important. If we see a drop in Asian central banks buying Treasuries, the market may assume that the central banks are becoming less enamoured with holding U.S. dollar assets," said Investec economist David Page.
U.S. October core producer prices rose by 0.1 percent month-on-month according to a Reuters poll forecast, compared with a 0.3 percent gain in September.
The March Euribor future <FEIH5>, a gauge of short-term euro zone interest rate expectations, was up 1.0 bps at 97.730, implying three-month money rates at 2.27 percent.
Treasuries slightly underperformed Bunds, with the 10-year yield spread widening by one basis point so that T-Notes yielded 49 basis points more than German debt. The euro swap spread was steady at 12 basis points.
((Reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe, editing by David Stamp; Reuters Messaging:
[email protected], +44 207542 6745))
--------------MARKET SNAPSHOT AT 1154 GMT ------------------
Futures continuous contract basis
FUTURES CASH YIELD
THREE MONTH EURO 97.805 (unch) 2.083 (-0.005)
TWO-YEAR SCHATZ 106.34 (+0.05) 2.373 (-0.035)
10-YEAR BUND 118.07 (+0.27) 3.739 (-0.029)
30-YEAR BUND 4.409 (-0.019)
Current levels versus prior European close
For relative performance tables see below
----------------------------------------------------------- LAST PREVIOUS
10-YEAR US/BUND SPREAD 49 48
10-YEAR UK/BUND SPREAD 93 92
10-YEAR BTP/BUND SPREAD 14 14
10-YEAR OAT/BUND SPREAD 5 5
10-YEAR AUSTRIA/BUND SPREAD 4 4
10-YEAR BONO/BUND SPREAD 0 0
10-YEAR EURO SWAP SPREAD 12 12
