Bonds: Gilts jump after London terror attack
These were the moves in some of the most widely-followed 10-year sovereign bond yields:
US: 239% (-3bp)
UK: 1.18% (-8bp)
Germany: 0.41% (-5bp)
France: 1.05% (-5bp)
Spain: 1.74% (-8bp)
Italy: 2.26% (-6bp)
Portugal: 4.16% (-6bp)
Greece: 7.40% (-6bp)
Japan: 0.06% (-1bp)
Gilts outperformed peers on Wednesday following news of a terrorist attack in London which reports said claimed the lives of four people, including that of the lone attacker.
That saw yields move sharply lower across Europe, including for the likes of the euro area's largest economies, France and Germany.
Acting as a backdrop, investors were asked to digest fresh Fedspeak on Wednesday.
Dallas Fed president Robert Kaplan told Reuters interest rates in the US should rise at least two more times in 2017.
Nonetheless, he did not appear to be in a rush, saying: "Now that we’ve done it, I think that we’ve got the benefit of a little time here to see how the economy unfolds. I plan to take advantage of that to assess how the economy is unfolding and be prepared to make a judgment as we head toward the next meetings."
Kaplan also believed the US central bank was "moving toward a point" where it should begin allowing the balance sheet to "gradually and patiently" run-off.
In terms of data, the main release of the session were the latest figures on US existing home sales for February, which fell 3.7% month-on-month to an annualised rate of 5.59m (consensus: 5.55m).
"This extent of decline is not unusual, given the volatile nature of this segment," Barclays Research's Blerina Uruci said.