Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that the European Central Bank (ECB) would probably wind down its 80 billion euro ($90 billion) monthly bond purchases gradually before ending its quantitative easing programme, citing unnamed officials at euro zone countries' central banks. ECB media officer Michael Steen later tweeted that the central bank's decision-making body has not discussed reducing the pace of its monthly bond buying. Rates will remain low until inflation gets up to the ECB's target, ECB chief economist Peter Praet told bankers on Tuesday. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes surged to a near two-week high of 1.6920. German 10-year government bonds also touched an almost two-week high of minus 0.043 percent on Tuesday before closing at minus 0.091 percent.

Source: The Edge Markets October 05, 2016 03:11 UTC