German bunds plunge on expectations of improved trade balance in December

The German government bunds plunged Wednesday following expectations of an improvement in the country’s trade balance during the month of December.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year bond, which moves inversely to its price, rose early 1 basis point to 0.33 percent, the long-term 30-year bond yields also jumped 2 basis points to 1.13 percent while the yield on short-term 4-year bond moved higher by over 1-1/2 basis points to -0.61 percent by 08:10 GMT.

Germany’s exports climbed 1.2 percent last year to EUR1.2 trillion (USD1.3 trillion), the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden reported on Thursday, while imports rose 0.6 percent to EUR954.6 billion. That left Germany’s trade surplus at EUR253 billion in 2016.

Meanwhile, the German stock index DAX Index traded 0.53 percent higher at 11,834.25 by 09:10 GMT, while at 09:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly Euro Strength Index remained highly bearish at -112.62 (a reading above +75 indicates a bullish trend, while that below -75 a bearish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex