German bunds suffer ahead of April producer price index, Eurozone’s March trade balance

The German bunds suffered during European session Thursday as investors wait to watch the country’s producer price index for the month of April and eurozone’s March trade balance data, scheduled to be released on May 18 by 06:00GMT and 09:00GMT respectively.

The German 10-year bond yields, which move inversely to its price, jumped 1-1/2 basis points to 0.62 percent, the yield on the 30-year note climbed 2 basis points to 1.32 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year traded flat at -0.55 percent by 09:30GMT.

Yesterday’s Italian debt sell-off, sparked by reports that the M5S and the League considering demanding that the ECB write off its debt and push forward reforms to allow countries to leave the euro, provided a preview of how financial markets would react if the parties were to implement some of their populist policy proposals. So far the coalition negotiations have failed to deliver a workable government agenda, and, against this backdrop, it remains to be seen if any progress is achieved today.

Data-wise, it should be a relatively quiet day, with only second-tier releases. Construction output data for March is out later this morning, while we have already seen new car registration figures for April released this morning. In March, new car sales declined 1.0 percent y/y, which was one of the weakest readings in recent years, but this was partly driven by base effects from a year ago, and on a quarterly basis growth remained firm in Q1.

Today’s figures suggested that the start to Q2 was also very strong with new car registrations up 9.0 percent y/y in April, the steepest in five months, suggesting that new car sales should continue supporting private consumption growth this quarter, according to the latest research report from Daiwa Capital Markets.

Meanwhile, the German DAX traded 0.19 percent higher at 13,020.44 by 09:30GMT, while at 09:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly Euro Strength Index remained neutral at -54.26 (higher than +75 represents bullish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex

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