This week, widespread purchases of sovereign debt were imposed, which resulted in a drop in bond yields. Over the past 5 days, given the setbacks suffered by stock markets, investors have turned to fixed income securities. All this, with the acceleration this Friday of the key data of the week: the monthly employment figures in the United States. These figures, which a month ago caused a controversy accident on the stock markets, continued to show signs of deterioration (142,000 non-farm payrolls were created in August, against 165,000 expected). At the same time, on the positive side, the unemployment rate fell by a tenth compared to the previous month, to 4.2%. But concern was already installed on the market.
The main reference in Spain, the 10-year Treasury bond, fell below the 3% mark this Friday at mid-session, a level that has not lost any closing day since January 1 (even if it crossed it during the session of August 22). paper For a decade, Spain has been experiencing, like the public debt as a whole, a week of purchases and therefore of yield reductions. In the last five days, it has gone from 3.13% to 2.986% where it is this Friday afternoon.
For its part, the yield on the 12-month Spanish Treasury bond has continued to fall on the secondary market in recent days: at mid-session it is at its lowest level since March 2023, around 2.87%. These debt securities have seen their yield fall even further since last Tuesday’s auction, when the Treasury placed 4,079.8 million euros in 12-month Letras at a rate of 2.954%. The 10-year Spanish bond increases its attractiveness compared to Letras, which the Treasury places below 3%.
With the fears present among investors, the yield of the 10-year US bond, which had started the week at 3.90%, rose to 3.69% by mid-afternoon this Friday. Buying predominated over selling also in the case of the T-Note, whose yield, once the employment data was published, suffered some volatility and then continued to sink to lows that already dated back to June 2023.
Beyond these two references, in the weekly calculation, the main variations in yield were recorded by the French 10-year bond, which went from touching 3% to 2.88% in five days, and its British counterpart, which from being practically at 2.88%. 4% went to 3.90%.
