European curves lightly twist steepened Wednesday.
- Yields looked headed lower in early trade, with no clear headline driver though seemingly continuing the bullish global bond move from Tuesday's close.
- The rally lost steam however, and yields steadily edged higher throughout the session from around 9am London time.
- Various factors contributing to the reversal included a soft 15Y Gilt auction as well as some fiscal headlines surrounding European countries increasing defence spending amid the NATO summit, and related US threats to increase tariffs on Spain.
- Gilts outperformed Bunds, with twist steepening in both the UK and German curves.
- Periphery/semi-core EGB performance was mixed, with OATs leading gains.
- Thursday's schedule includes appearances by BOE's Bailey and Breeden and ECB's Schnabel, Guidos and Lagarde, along with German GfK consumer confidence and UK CPI data.
Closing Yields / 10-Yr EGB Spreads To Germany
- Germany: The 2-Yr yield is down 0.8bps at 1.843%, 5-Yr is up 1.1bps at 2.142%, 10-Yr is up 2.2bps at 2.565%, and 30-Yr is up 2.6bps at 3.052%.
- UK: The 2-Yr yield is down 1.6bps at 3.856%, 5-Yr is down 1.2bps at 3.979%, 10-Yr is up 0.8bps at 4.481%, and 30-Yr is up 2.3bps at 5.231%.
- Italian BTP spread down 0.6bps at 91.3bps / French OAT down 1.6bps at 69.6bps