German bunds remain mixed after December trade balance data cheers investors beyond expectations

The German bunds remained mixed during European session on the last trading day of the week Friday after the country’s trade data cheered market participants beyond consensus estimates amid an otherwise, silent day that witnessed data of little economic significance.

The German 10-year bond yields, which move inversely to its price, slipped nearly 1 basis point to 0.109 percent, the yield on 30-year note remained flat at 0.726 percent while the yield on short-term 2-year rose nearly 1 basis point to -0.573 percent by 10:00GMT.

In 2018, goods worth EUR1,317.9 billion were exported by Germany and goods worth EUR1,090.0 billion were imported. As reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on the basis of preliminary results, German exports in 2018 were 3.0 percent higher than in 2017, imports increased by 5.7 percent.

Exports and imports in 2018 exceeded the previous highs from 2017. At that time goods worth EUR1,279.0 billion had been exported and goods worth EUR1,031.0 billion had been imported. The foreign trade balance closed in 2018 with a surplus of EUR227.8 billion. In 2017, the balance in the foreign trade balance was +EUR247.9 billion.

In the countries outside the European Union (third countries) goods worth EUR539.2 billion were exported in 2018 and goods worth EUR467.0 billion were imported from these countries. Compared to 2017, exports to third countries increased by 1.9 percent, with imports increasing by 5.0 percent.

Meanwhile, the German DAX remained tad lower at 11,020.83 by 10:10GMT, while at 10:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly Euro Strength Index remained neutral at -62.58 (higher than +75 represents bullish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex