Pill the highlight of the day

After a strong open, gilts have traded in a 120.64-120.94 range the whole day (and now sit almost in the middle of that range at 120.77).

• The main event of the day was the speech by BOE Chief Economist Huw Pill. He spelt out the reasons he didn't vote for a 50bp hike in February noting he was sceptical of efforts to return to R-star, didn't want to validate market behaviour around the central bank needed to always act aggressively and that "Restricting ourselves to a 25bp now - albeit with the prospect of more to come in the coming months - is an investment in containing market expectations of aggressive 'activism' that I saw as worth making". The underlying tone of Pill's speech was that more rate hikes would be appropriate but although he didn't explicitly talk the market down it's clear he doesn't see the need for what is currently priced in.
• Looking ahead tomorrow's moves are likely to be more externally driven, with the US CPI print the highlight of the day. Friday will see the release of monthly GDP for December and its constituent components.
• 2y yields down -4.6bp today at 1.278%
• 5y yields down -5.1bp today at 1.321%
• 10y yields down -5.5bp today at 1.433%
• 30y yields down -5.9bp today at 1.532%
• 2s10s down -1.0bp today at 15.4bp
• 10s30s down -0.4bp today at 9.9bp