Bond yields lower

The euro and sterling are not much changed against the dollar this morning trading at about $1.0550 and $1.2350 respectively, which also leaves the single currency-pound exchange rate broadly steady at 85.5p

Government bond yields continue to nudge down as markets pare back somewhat the extent to which they see central bank interest rates increasing over the next 9-12 months or so. US and German 10-year yields are now at 2.95% and 1% respectively with equivalent UK yields at around 1.80%

European and US stocks chalked up modest gains yesterday and the former are ahead again in early trading today, up around half a percentage point or thereabouts

ECB member (and head of the Bundesbank) Joachim Nagel, says he expects bond purchases “to be discontinued at the end of June”, and that at the June ECB meeting he will “advocate a first step normalising (i.e.increasing) ECB interest rates in July”

Data due today includes April CPI inflation in the US, with the headline rate expected to have dipped to 8.1% last month (from 8.5% in March) according to the consensus forecast