Bond yields lower

The euro is broadly steady this morning trading just below $1.22 against the dollar and at around 86p against sterling, while the pound continues to hover a little under the $1.42 level against the US currency

There was a notable enough fall in US bond yields yesterday, albeit there was no obvious catalyst, with 10-year yields now down more than 5bps from where they were trading yesterday morning to a circa 3-month low of 1.52%, while equivalent German yields are also lower at a touch shy of -0.25%

The Euro area economy contracted by a bit less in the first quarter than previously thought, with GDP falling by 0.3% from the final quarter of last year and by 1.3%  from the first quarter of 2020

The number of job openings in the US rose to a record high in April as the economy got back up and running, at the same time as the proportion of small businesses saying they plan to hire also rose to a record high

Bank of England Chief Economist Haldane says the UK economy is “going gangbusters” and it may soon be time to begin turning off the monetary policy tap

It is relatively quiet on the data front today with no releases of note