Bonds: No fixed timetable for next rate hike, Fed's Yellen says

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

US: 1.57% (+1bp)
UK: 0.68% (+1bp)
Germany: -0.15% (-1bp)
France: 0.16% (-1bp)
Spain: 0.90% (-0bp)
Italy: 1.18% (-3bp)
Portugal: 3.33% (-8bp)
Greece: 8.28% (-14bp)
Japan: -0.09% (-2bp)

Longer-dated Gilts tracked small losses in similarly-dated US Treasuries amid some slightly hawkish Fedspeak.

In testimony to the US House of Representatives' committee on Financial Services, Fed chief Janet Yellen said there was "no fixed timetable" for the next rate hike.

Nonetheless, she added that: "We expect to see solid job growth continue, but we do need, if things continue on their current course, to gradually remove the accommodation that is there".

Emphasising the impact which continued job gains would eventually have on the economy, leading to overheating (echoing remarks from Vice Chair Stanley Fischer in the previous session), Yellen said recent increased levels of activity and continued progress in the labour market had strengthened the case for an increase in the Fed funds rate.

Earlier on Wednesday, San Francisco Fed boss John Williams told Reuters that "it is getting harder and harder to justify interest rates being so incredibly low given where the U.S. economy is and where it is going."

Perhaps Stateside, in the UK at least monetary policy was still set to go in the opposite direction, according to a top Bank of England official.

More monetary stimulus would "likely be needed at some point" to aid the British economy as it adjusts to the uncertainty created when the country voted to leave the European Union, Bank of England deputy governor Minouche Shafik said on Wednesday.

On the subject of Deutsche Bank, in remarks made at Bloomberg's Most Influential conference, hedge fund manager Marc Lasry opined that the German lender did not have a 'problem' at present, but pointed out its highly leveraged balance sheet, roughly 10 times that of US counterparts such as JP Morgan.