UK gilts mixed in muted trading ahead of BoE Governor Carney’s speech, April consumer price inflation

The UK gilts remained mixed Monday in a muted trading session ahead of Bank of England (BoE) Governor Mark Carney’s speech, scheduled to be held on May 22 and consumer price inflation (CPI) data for the month of April, due on May 23 for further direction in the debt market.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year gilts, slipped nearly 1-1/2 basis points to 1.48 percent, the super-long 30-year bond yields hovered around 1.90 percent and the yield on the short-term 2-year traded flat at 0.82 percent by 09:25GMT.

The country’s headline consumer price inflation rate could slip by 0.1ppt from March’s 2.5 percent y/y, if an easing in the likes of travel fares after the relatively early Easter offset the impact of the higher oil price. The former should allow the core rate to fall by as much as 0.2ppt from March’s 2.3 percent y/y, Daiwa Capital Markets reported in its latest research.

Among other releases, Friday brings the second estimate of Q1 GDP. While the most recent monthly figures show that construction activity contracted by less than the ONS had initially thought, this was offset by a smaller rise in IP than first gauged. Accordingly, there is little reason to expect a revision from the first estimate of 0.1 percent q/q, barring a significant revision to services output. 

In addition to the data releases, some new insights into monetary policymaking are scheduled for this week -- on Tuesday Mark Carney along with his colleagues from the MPC is scheduled to testify before the Treasury Select Committee, while on Thursday the Governor is scheduled to speak publicly twice.  

Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 traded 0.28 percent higher at 7,336.25 by 09:30 GMT, while at 09:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly Pound Strength Index remained highly bearish at -154.39 (a reading above +75 indicates a bullish trend, while that below -75 a bearish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex

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