Core fixed income marches higher as equities continue to selloff

After a strong start to the European session, core fixed income has continued to grind higher as Covid-19 concerns continue to dominate market focus today. Equity index futures have also continued their declines, particularly in Europe with the DAX leading the was, over 3% lower but other major European indices falling at least 2%.

• Peripheral spreads have continued to widen through the morning. This has led to peripheral bonds at first selling off before recovering some of their gains as they have tracked Bunds higher over the past hour or so.
• As we noted earlier, Chancellor Merkel has been reported as wanting a meeting of the leaders of the federal states today to discuss measures including shutting all bars and restaurants. While President Macron is expected to announce new restrictions at 19:00GMT/20:00CET after a two day meeting of his Covid-19 taskforce in which he is expected to discuss an extended curfew.
• The calendar is pretty light today with the exception of the Bank of Canada rate announcement.
• TY1 futures are up 0-5+ today at 139-00+ with 10y UST yields down -1.6bp at 0.753% and 2y yields down -0.5bp at 0.143%.
• Bund futures are up 0.39 today at 176.33 with 10y Bund yields down -2.5bp at -0.641% and Schatz yields down -1.4bp at -0.794%.
• Gilt futures are up 0.31 today at 136.25 with 10y yields down -2.2bp at 0.208% and 2y yields down -1.2bp at -0.67%.