, Columnists
ECB Throws Italian Bonds to the Bears
“We are not here to close spreads,” Christine Lagarde said on Thursday. That's terrible news for Italian yields.
Bond investors are growling.
Photographer: JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER/AFPThis article is for subscribers only.
Christine Lagarde made her third prime-time appearance as president of the European Central Bank on Thursday, against a backdrop of plunging stock markets around the world and surging bond yields for the euro zone’s weaker economies. If her aim was to soothe investor concern about the repercussions of the pandemic, she failed — spectacularly.
At the start of Thursday’s press conference, Italy’s 10-year borrowing cost was about 1.4 percent. By the time it wrapped up a bit less than an hour later, the interest rate had surpassed 1.8 percent, a climb of more than 60 basis points for the day.