Bonds: Euro area yields jump amid signs of better growth, inflation

These were the movements in some of the most widely-followed 10-year sovereign bond yields:

US: 2.44% (+0bp)

UK: 1.33% (+9bp)
Germany: 0.26% (+7bp)
France: 0.78% (+11bp)
Spain: 1.42% (+9bp)
Italy: 1.87% (+13bp)
Portugal: 3.91% (+20bp)
Greece: 6.97% (-15bp)

Gilts retreated on the first trading day of 2017, pushing their yields lower, as traders digested a raft of stronger-than-expected purchasing managers indices for December published in China, the States and the UK.

Those survey results came alongside a much higher than forecast reading on German consumer prices at the end of 2016.

Acting as a backdrop, in their first quarter 2017 global economic outlook HSBC bumped up its short-term growth and inflation projections worldwide.

It was a "rare treat" HSBC said, going on to explain it was the first time since 2012 that it had raised both sets of forecasts.

Nonetheless, the London-based bank reminded clients that global growth was likely to continue to hover near the mediocre levels evident over the past few years.

On a more positive note, it said there were signs inflation was stirring around the globe, amid "robust" growth Stateside, resilience in China, higher oil prices and varying degrees of FX depreciation.

In a more cautious tone, it described the uncertainties facing the UK in its Brexit negotiations and the medium-term outlook for growth as "huge".

HSBC raised its forecast for the rate of growth in global GDP in 2017 from 2.3% to 2.5% and for inflation from 2.7% to 3.0%.

For the UK, it now saw GDP expanding at a 1.2% clip, up from 0.7% before, while consumer prices would advance a tad less rapidly, by 2.8% instead of the 2.9% previously anticipated.