Government bonds

China bought up to €400m of Spanish 10-year bonds last week as Asian investors returned to the peripheral eurozone markets.

Government bond yields have continued to dive today as ‘fear' grips global risk assets.

As we feared, this is proving a difficult year for investors. We have long thought the best in world share markets was over.

Vanguard is to adopt float-adjusted benchmarks across nine of its bond index funds.

The eurozone is not offering Greece enough cash to get it through the debt refinancing is faces this year, managers believe.

ON BONDS

A record $200bn issuance of new inflation-linked bonds from the UK, US and Europe is forecast this year as global governments seek to finance ballooning budget deficits.

UK investors bought a fifth of the €5bn 10-year bonds sold by Greece yesterday.

Given the magnitude of the contraction in credit spreads in 2009, it is reasonable for investors to question whether there is scope for further progress in 2010.