German bunds rally after Q4 GDP disappoints investors; ECB’s Lagarde in focus

The German bunds rallied during afternoon session of second first trading day of the week Tuesday after the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) for the fourth quarter of 2019, released today, disappointed market investors, with eyes still on the European Central Bank’s (ECB) Governor Christine Lagarde’s speech, due to be delivered on February 26 by 13:30GMT.

The German 10-year bond yield, which move inversely to its price, slumped 3 basis points to -0.512 percent, the long-term 30-year yield plunged 3-1/2 basis points to -0.033 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year suffered 2-1/2 basis points to trade at -0.700 percent by 10:40GMT.

The gross domestic product (GDP) in the fourth quarter of 2019 compared to the third quarter of 2019 - adjusted for price, seasonal and calendar changes - did not increase any further.

As the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) had already announced in its quick report on February 14, 2020 , there was a swinging start in the first quarter (+0.5 percent) and a decline in the second quarter (-0.2 percent) initially a slight recovery in the third quarter (+0.2 percent). This results in price-adjusted GDP growth of 0.6 percent for the whole of 2019 (also adjusted for calendar changes).

Meanwhile, the German DAX lost 1 percent to 12,892.92 by 10:45GMT.