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The German bunds plunged Thursday amid a silent trading session ahead of European Central Bank (ECB) member Coeure’s speech, scheduled to be held today by 14:30GMT for further direction in the debt market.
The German 10-year bond yields, which move inversely to its price, jumped 2 basis points to 0.57 percent, the yield on 30-year note surged 2-1/2 1 basis points to 1.31 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year traded 1/2 basis point higher at -0.57 percent by 09:10GMT.
It should be a relatively uneventful day for economic data from the euro area today, with no top-tier releases due for release. However, ECB Governing Council members Cœuré, Weidmann and Villeroy de Galhau will speak publicly, with any utterances on FX trends likely to be noted by investors. Certainly, Villeroy de Galhau, as well as other leading Governing Council members Constâncio and Nowotny, have already this week expressed concerns about the euro’s recent appreciation trend, arguing that forex market movements now require monitoring due to their potential impact on import prices and hence overall inflation.
While the ECB believes that the relationship between the exchange rate and inflation is somewhat weaker than in the past, it can still have a significant impact. And so, in a signal that it is indeed mindful of the risks from FX markets – and hence also wary of the risks of normalising policy too rapidly – we expect the ECB’s policy statement to be issued at the conclusion of next week’s Governing Council meeting to repeat the wording used in September, i.e. that ‘recent volatility in the exchange rate represents a source of uncertainty which requires monitoring with regard to its possible implications for the medium-term outlook for price stability’.
Meanwhile, the German DAX rose 0.42 percent to 13,239.50 by 09:10 GMT, while at 09:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly Euro Strength Index remained neutral at -73.38 (higher than +75 represents bullish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex
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