Bonds: Gilts, euro area debt jumps as US healthcare bill put on ice

These were the movements in some of the most widely-followed 10-year sovereign bond yields:

US: 2.41% (-1bp)

UK: 1.20% (-3bp)
Germany: 0.40% (-3bp)
France: 0.99% (-6bp)
Italy: 2.22% (-5bp)
Spain: 1.69% (-4bp)
Greece: 7.41% (+2bp)
Portugal: 4.13% (-6bp)
Japan: 0.07% (+1bp)

Gilts advanced, alongside similar gains for Bunds, pushing yields lower, as news broke that the White House had decided to pull its proposed US healthcare reform from the floor of the House of Representatives.

Somewhat paradoxically, US president Donald Trump's legislative push failed because of opposition from both moderate Republicans, who wanted to water down some aspects of the reform, and the most conservative lawmakers in the Republican party, who preferred a more aggressive revamp.

Friday's unexpected setback sparked talk that the Trump adiministration might face similar hurdles when trying to obtain Capitol Hill's approval for tax cuts and infrastructure investment.

Nonetheless, European sovereign debt benefitted far more from the above than similarly-dated US Treasuries.

That was despite a very strong reading on IHS Markit's composite euro area purchasing managers index for March which jumped from 56.0 in February to 56.7 for March (consensus: 56.0), hitting a 71-month high in the process.

"The PMI activity and price indices have moved well into territory which would normally be associated with the ECB tightening policy. Speculation may intensify that the central bank could risk falling behind the curve if growth continues to strengthen and inflation proves stickier than expected," said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit.