UK gilts slump ahead of BoE Governor Carney speech, Q4 GDP data in focus next week

The UK gilts slumped Tuesday ahead of the Bank of England Governor Mark Carney’s speech on January 25. Also, investors are now curiously eyeing the fourth quarter gross domestic product (GDP), scheduled to be released on Wednesday.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year gilts, which moves inversely to its price, fell nearly 3 basis points to 1.39 percent, the super-long 30-year bond yields also moved higher by nearly 3 basis points to 2.04 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year remained lower by 2-1/2 basis points to 0.18 percent by 10:00 GMT.

The Bank of England (BoE) Governor Mark Carney is scheduled to speak on Wednesday, while the central bank will to hold its first monetary policy meeting of 2017 on February 2.

U.K. retail sales fell at the fastest pace in almost five years in December as rising prices saw consumers buy less of everything from household goods to clothing and food. The volume of goods sold in stores and online fell 1.9 percent from November, the Office for National Statistics said on Friday. That was the biggest drop since April 2012 and far exceeded the modest decline predicted by economists. Sales excluding auto fuel fell 2 percent.

Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 rose 0.25 percent to 7,169 by 09:40 GMT, while at 09:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly Pound Strength Index remained neutral at 46.09 (a reading above +75 indicates a bullish trend, while that below -75 a bearish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex