Bonds: Gilts continue advance as investors focus on start of Brexit talks
These were the movements in some of the most widely-followed 10-year sovereign bond yields:
US: 2.41% (+4bp)
UK: 1.12% (-3bp)
Germany: 0.33% (-1bp)
France: 0.94% (+1bp)
Italy: 2.15% (+1bp)
Spain: 1.65% (+1bp)
Portugal: 3.95% (-5bp)
Greece: 6.95% (+1bp)
Japan: 0.07% (+1bp)
Somewhat uncharacteristically, longer-term Gilts continued to advance even as similarly-dated US Treasuries retreated following 'hawkish' remarks from two top Fed officials during the previous session, as investors tried to read the political tea leaves on both sides of the Channel as Brexit negotiations got underway.
Speaking on Wednesday evening, both the president of the Federal Reserve bank of Boston and his opposite number at the San Francisco Fed weighed in with support for up to three more interest rates hikes in the States in 2017.
Euro area debt markets on the other were mixed, with small gains to be seen in Bund prices but periphery issues trading slightly lower following weaker than expected prints for inflation in both Germany and Spain in the month of March.
The headline rate of consumer price gains in Germany retreated to an annualised pace of 1.6% for March from the 2.2% pace observed in February, preliminary data from the Federal Office of Statistics revealed.
Thursday's price data meant traders should be ready for an undershoot in the euro area-wide CPI numbers scheduled for release on the next day (consensus: 1.8%), Pantheon Macroeconomics said.