UK 2-10Y gilt yield inversion raises further concerns on global growth outlook, dragged by lower U.S. yields

The United Kingdom’s 2-10Y gilt yields inverted during European trading hours Friday, intrigued by the global growth concerns and uncertainties over U.S.-China trade relations, although President Trump said that he has a call scheduled “very soon” with Chinese counterpart Xi over trade.

This has been further dragged lower by lower bond yields in the United States, with the 10-year benchmark briefly dropping to a three-year low below 1.50 percent yesterday.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year gilts, jumped 5 basis points to 0.459 percent, the 30-year yield slipped nearly 1 basis point to 0.945 percent and the yield on the short-term 2-year surged nearly 7-1/2 basis points to 0.520 percent by 10:15GMT.

The move lower in US bond yields (despite a short-lived bounce following yesterday’s better-than-expected US retail sales report for July) continued to drag down yields elsewhere, Lloyds Bank reported.

In the UK, 10-year gilt yields dropped below their 2-year equivalent for the first time since 2008. The moves were seen as reflecting growing concerns of a global economic recession and occurred despite a better than expected July UK retail sales report, the report added.

Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 traded tad 0.30 percent higher at 7,088.54 by 10:20GMT.