Bonds: Very dovish remarks from Boston Fed president Rosengren
These were the movements in some of the most widely tracked 10-year sovereign bond yields on Friday:
US: +4bp (2.19%)
UK: +9bp (2.19%)
France: +4bp (1.30%)
Germany: +4bp (0.86%)
Italy: -8bp ((2.50%)
Spain: -4bp (2.17%)
Japan: -1bp (0.48%)
Greece: -90bp (8.07%)
For the most part longer-term sovereign bond yields in the G-5 countries recovered and headed higher on Friday, following soothing words from some of the world's central bankers and stronger-than-expected economic data releases Stateside.
Particularly noteworthy were remarks from the president of the Federal Reserve bank of Boston, Eric Rosengren.
In an interview with CNBC Rosengren said the US does not require another round of quantitative easing.
He did add however that, "if the economy got weak enough that it was required, we should do it. I certainly hope and I don't expect that will be the case, but I can't rule anything out at this time."
Tellingly, perhaps, he also said that in his opinion short-term interest rates should rise about a year before the central bank's 2% inflation target is reached. At its current pace inflation will not hit that level for several years, he added.
Earlier in the day Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane indicated that he was now "gloomier".
Eurozone periphery bond yields corrected lower following several days of selling. Aside from the normalisation that could be seen across all asset classes on Thursday and Friday some market commentary attributed the moves to comments out of the European Central Bank's Benoit Coeure.
Speaking from Riga the member of the European Central Bank's executive board said officials will start the next phase of bond purchase stimulus over the coming days.
For his part, Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras said he is negotiating with Athens' international creditors over a possible precautionary credit line. Investors are worried about the country's access to international capital markets once it exits its current rescue programme.
To take note of, and helping to explain the prior few days' out-sized moves in US Treasury markets, the latest CFTC data revealed that in the week to 14 October large speculators, which includes hedge-funds, had taken their bearish bets on 10-year note futures to their highest since May, increasing them by 30,383 to 123,168.