German bunds tad higher in muted trading session following yesterday’s ECB announcements

The German bunds remained tad higher during European session on the last trading day of the week Friday amid a muted session that witnessed data of little economic significance. However, announcements by the European Central Bank (ECB) at its monetary policy meeting held yesterday, also weighed on bond yields.

The German 10-year bond yields, which move inversely to its price, slipped 1 basis point to 0.058 percent, the yield on 30-year note also edged nearly 1 basis point lower at 0.721 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year hovered around -0.542 percent by 10:00GMT.

Following yesterday’s ECB announcements, today has brought an update on conditions in the manufacturing sector at the start of the year.

And tallying with the continued downbeat tone of various business surveys, this morning’s Germany factory orders release was disappointing, with orders down a much steeper-than-expected 2.6 percent m/m in January (the largest monthly drop since June), Daiwa Capital Markets reported.

The previous month’s reading was, however, revised significantly higher, from -1.6 percent to 0.9 percent m/m. Nevertheless, that still left the level of orders down by nearly 4 percent compared to a year ago, which represented an eighth consecutive negative reading, the report added.

Meanwhile, the German DAX remained tad 0.58 percent lower at 11,451.34 by 10:05GMT, while at 10:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly Euro Strength Index remained neutral at -70.98 (higher than +75 represents bullish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex