Bonds: Sovereign bonds continue to power ahead, Gilts lead the charge
These were the movements in some of the most widely-followed 10-year sovereign bonds:
US: 1.87% (-7bp)
UK: 1.54% (-8bp)
Germany: 0.31% (-4bp)
France: 0.64% (-3bp)
Italy: 1.49% (+2bp)
Spain: 1.59% (+2bp)
Japan: 0.86% (+3bp)
Portugal: 2.98% (+5bp)
Greece: 9.42% (+15bp)
Gilts continued to power ahead, tracking the move higher in Treasury notes ahead of Thursday´s Monetary Policy Committee meeting and Friday´s US non-farm payrolls numbers.
To take note of however, the most recent YouGov poll revealed that a total of 42% of people surveyed said they would vote for a British exit from the European, four points more than those who claimed the opposite.
The above came amid another bearish call on the equity market from a large broker, this time Credit Suisse.
Among the reasons cited by the Swiss broker´s global equity strategy team to lower its stance on stocks worldwide to 'benchmark' were the now higher risks of a hard-landing in China. Nevertheless, Credit Suisse´s head of equity strategy, Andrew Garthwaite, remained more upbeat on markets such as Europe, describing them as "cheap".
Of interest, German unemployment data surprised to the downside, with the rate of those unemployed falling from 6.3% in December to 6.2% in January (consensus: 6.3%).
The reaction from analysts at Pantheon Macroeconomics, in one line, was "sizzling, but also look too good to be true."
Nonethless, market commentary appeared to brush aside the labour market figures, focusing instead on the latest factory price data from Eurostat.
According to the EU´s statistics office, producer prices in the euro area decreased by 0.8% month-on-month in December (consensus: -0.6%), although the the year-on-year rate of decline improved from 3.2% to 3.0%.
As regards central bank-speak, in remarks to the Wall Street Journal European Central Bank governing council member Yves Mersch sounded a cautious note.
"There are several factors which have intensified ... one is the oil price ... That is something to assess - the volatility - whether you look through it or whether there is a risk of it becoming entrenched. The second is China and other emerging market economies," he said.
On a more confident note, speaking in the afternoon the president of the Federal Reserve bank of Kansas City, Esther George, said "my view is that the committee should continue the gradual adjustment of moving rates higher."
"The fundamentals of the US economy currently appear strong enough to sustain positive growth going forward."
George did not specify an exact number of interest rate increases.