German bunds surge despite hopes of improvement in March employment report

The German bunds surged despite expectations of an improvement in the country’s employment report for the month of March, scheduled to be released on March 29 by 07:55GMT and the consumer price inflation (CPI) data, due by 12:00GMT will add detailed direction to the debt market.

The German 10-year bond yields, which move inversely to its price, slumped 2 basis points to 0.48 percent, the yield on 30-year note also plunged 2 basis points to 1.13 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year traded tad lower at -0.59 percent by 08:20GMT.

After yesterday’s broader Commission confidence survey showed a deterioration in economic sentiment to a six-month low led by the business sector, this morning’s German GfK consumer confidence survey provided a reminder that households in the largest euro area member state remain upbeat.

Having eased 0.2pt this month from the series high of 11 in February, the GfK consumer confidence indicator is forecast to edge back up next month to 10.9. That reflects the breakdown of the main survey components for March: consumer expectations about the economy remained stable at a historically high level, while income expectations recovered slightly. Strong conditions in the German labor market and the ongoing period of solid economic growth seem to have contributed to the positive assessment in both categories.

And consistent with that, the survey’s index of households’ propensity to consume also recovered from a dip in the previous month, suggesting that we might well see private consumption taking a step up in this quarter after very weak spending growth in the second half of 2017. The survey measure of price expectations, however, dropped to a three-month low.

Meanwhile, the German DAX slumped 1.12 percent to 11,839.23 by 08:25GMT, while at 08:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly Euro Strength Index remained highly bullish at 115.24 (higher than +75 represents bullish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex

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