The 10-Year gilt/Bund spread is back below 210bp, with gilts outperforming Bunds as Tsys rally in the wake of the ADP employment data and Trump’s latest critique of Fed Chair Powell.
The spread failed to test the April closing highs (218.8bp) in recent weeks, although the short-term fundamental and technical outlooks suggest there is a risk of further widening.
The short-term technical outlook for Bund futures is a little more constructive than that for gilts.
10-Year gilt yields remain stuck in the wedge drawn off the longer-term uptrend (beginning at the December ’21 lows) and the short run downtrend drawn off the ’25 high. The benchmark last trades at 4.63%, with the boundaries of the wedge located at 4.500% & 4.788% today.
Ongoing fiscal fragility in the UK keeps focus on the upper end of the recent range, although some speculation surrounding (a modest degree of) fiscal tightening has prevented 10-Year gilt yields from moving towards year-to-date highs (4.921%).
Meanwhile, the market seems more at ease with the idea of fiscal loosening in Germany than it did around the time of the “whatever it takes” declaration made in early March. Two factors seem to be at play here, some believe that the size of the loosening will comfortably undershoot initial estimates & related debt issuance has not been immediate, giving the market some breathing room.
Note that the relatively elevated gilt beta to moves in U.S. Tsys (compared to Bunds) and the complex macro environment evident at present add further layers of complexity to the outlook for the spread.