German bunds strengthen despite surge in ZEW economic sentiment; ECB’s Draghi in focus

The German government bunds strengthened Tuesday after investors have largely shrugged-off the surge in the country’s economic sentiment indicator, released by ZEW. Also, markets will now remain focussed to read along European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s speech, scheduled to be held on September 21 for future direction in the money market.

The German 10-year bond yields, which moves inversely to its price, slipped 1 basis point to 0.45 percent, the yield on the 30-year note fell 1-1/2 basis points to 1.23 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year traded nearly 1 basis point lower at -0.68 percent by 09:10GMT.

German economic sentiment rose much more than expected in September, bolstering optimism over the motor of the euro zone economy, industry data showed on Tuesday. In a report, the ZEW Centre for Economic Research said that its index of German economic sentiment rose to 17.0 this month from August’s reading of 10.0. Analysts had expected the index to increase to just 12.5 in September.

On the index, a level above 0.0 indicates optimism, a level below 0.0 indicates pessimism. The Current Conditions Index also unexpectedly rose to 87.9 this month from 86.7 in August. That compared to expectations for a slight drop to 86.6. Further, the index of euro zone economic sentiment increased to 31.7 in September from 29.3 a month earlier. The consensus was looking for a larger gain to 32.4.

Meanwhile, the German DAX traded 0.18 percent lower at 12,536.25 by 09:20 GMT, while at 09:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly Euro Strength Index remained slightly bullish at 93.21 (higher than +75 represents bullish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex

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