German bunds jump despite better-than-expected Feb Ifo business climate; Q4 GDP eyed

The German bunds jumped during afternoon session of the first trading day of the week Monday even as the country’s Ifo business climate index for the month of February came in better than market expectations.

However, eyes still remain on Germany’s gross domestic product (GDP) for the fourth quarter of 2019, scheduled to be released on February 25 by 07:00GMT.

The German 10-year bond yield, which move inversely to its price, plunged nearly 6 basis points to -0.490 percent, the long-term 30-year yield slumped 6-1/2 basis points to -0.019 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year suffered 4 basis points to trade at -0.680 percent by 10:40GMT.

German Ifo Business Climate rose to 96.1 in February, up from 95.9, beating expectations of 96.0. Current Assessment index rose to 93.4, up from 92.9, beat expectation of 93.3. However, Expectations index dropped slightly to 98.9, down from 99.1, missed expectation of 99.0.

In terms of ECB-speak, Governing Council members due to perform in the coming week include President Lagarde (Wednesday) and Executive Board members Lane, de Guindos, Schnabel and Panetta (all Thursday). In the markets, Italy will sell index-linked and zero-coupon bonds on Wednesday, while Germany will sell 5Y OBLs the following day.

Meanwhile, the German DAX plunged nearly 4 percent to 13,072.01 by 11:00GMT.