Bonds: Treasuries slip as US consumer confidence at highest since 2000

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

US: 2.40% (+2bp)

UK: 1.19% (+3bp)
Germany: 0.39% (-1bp)
France: 0.96% (-1bp)
Spain: 1.68% (-1bp)
Italy: 2.16% (-4bp)
Portugal: 4.07% (-1bp)
Japan: 0.06% (+0bp)
Greece: 7.11% (-15bp)

Gilts slipped on the eve of Prime Minister Theresa May's much-awaited decision to trigger Article 50, starting two years of negotiations with the European Union before the country leaves the bloc.

Acting as a backdrop, risk aversion was recovering slightly after the previous session's pessimism, triggered by the White House's inability to obtain passage of its healthcare reform bill on 24 March.

The economic calendar on Tuesday was rather sparse, although traders were looking out to a speech due later in the day from US Federal Reserve governor Jerome Powell at 2030 GMT.

Speaking before him, Kansas City Federal Reserve President Esther George reportedly said she needs to see more details on the White House's fiscal plans before she can include them in her economic forecasts.

In economic news, the Conference Board's gauge of US consumer confidence surged in March to its highest since December 2000, amid large gains in the subindices tracking both investors' take on the current situation and that for expectations.

The former, which was the most important of the two, jumped from 103.9 last month to 113.8.

"Consumers’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions improved considerably. Consumers also expressed much greater optimism regarding the short-term outlook for business, jobs and personal income prospects. Thus, consumers feel current economic conditions have improved over the recent period, and their renewed optimism suggests the possibility of some upside to the prospects for economic growth in the coming months," the Conference Board said in a statement.