Bonds: Treasuries start week on a strong note, Bunds underperform
These were the movements in the most closely-followed 10-year sovereign bond yields:
US: 2.37% (-4bp)
UK: 1.17% (-3bp)
Germany: 0.42% (-0bp)
France: 0.97% (-1bp)
Spain: 2.20% (-3bp)
Italy: 2.20% (-3bp)
Portugal: 4.08% (-6bp)
Greece: 7.26% (-15bp)
Japan: 0.06% (-1bp)
US Treasuries started the week higher following Friday's surprise setback for the White House in its attempts at rolling back Obamacare.
Against that backdrop, 10-year Bunds underperformed the market following the release of a stronger than expected reading on German business confidence and upbeat news for Chancellor Merkel on the political front.
Ifo's business climate index rose to 112.3 from 111.1 in February, beating expectations for a reading of 111.0 and hitting its highest level since July 2011.
The expectations index pushed up to 105.7 from 104.2, surpassing expectations of 104.0.
Commenting on the US Republican party's decision the week before to pull its proposed bill to reform US healthcare, Jim Reid at Deutsche Bank took a somewhat contrarian stance.
Reid told clients: "Friday's failure does now increase the risks of further difficult negotiations going forward which Ryan hinted at on Friday night but the reality is that tax reform is of far more economic consequence than healthcare so the market could give the GOP some benefit of the doubt."
To take note of, on Monday morning economists at HSBC raised their forecasts for the number of US interest rate hikes in 2016 from one to three, with another expected in early 2018.
However, after that the Federal Reserve would stay put to assess the economy's reaction, HSBC said.
To take into account as well, at the weekend Merkel's CDU clinched 40.7% of the vote in the state of Saarland.
That was up from 35.2% in 2012 and was a significant upset for the Socialist SPD which was expected to win.
The SPD has managed to significantly cut Merkel's lead year-to-date so analysts were now eager to see if the CDU's strong showing in that small state would carry over into regional elections set for May, ahead of the national one in September.