German bonds flat ahead of Eurogroup meeting, Eurozone’s July trade balance

The German government bonds traded flat Thursday as investors wait to watch the Eurogroup meeting, scheduled to be held on September 15, besides, the common currency bloc’s trade balance for the month of July, due on the same day by 09:00GMT.

The German 10-year bond yields, which moves inversely to its price, hovered around 0.40 percent, the yield on 30-year note flat at 1.22 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year traded 1/2 basis point higher at -0.71 percent by 08:10GMT.

New car registration numbers for the euro area in August looked good, up 6.9%Y/Y taking the annual rate increase for the year to-date to 5.3 percent y/y, yet more evidence of continued solid consumer spending growth. Those figures compare with a drop of 6.4 percent y/y and 2.4 percent YTD/Y in the UK, where consumption is now very much in the slow lane.

Ahead of the release of the final August CPI figures for the euro area on Monday, the equivalent French numbers released this morning confirmed the 0.2ppt rise in the EU harmonised measure to a four-month high of 1.0 percent y/y, with core inflation on the national measure stable at 0.5 percent y/y.

But after yesterday’s figures from Germany (up 0.3ppt to 1.8 percent y/y) and Spain (up 0.3ppt to 2.0 percent y/y) also confirmed the flash estimates, the euro area numbers due next week are likely to confirm the preliminary figures, with headline CPI up 0.2ppt to 1.5 percent y/y and core CPI unchanged at 1.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the German DAX traded 0.26 percent lower at 12,521.50 by 08:15 GMT, while at 08:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly Euro Strength Index remained neutral at 26.69 (higher than +75 represents bullish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex

FxWirePro launches Absolute Return Managed Program. For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/invest