European Peripheral Bonds Go Berserk

The market has been acting very weird all morning, with the oddness culminating in peripheral European bonds as of several minutes ago. Something odd is happening in the shorter end of Portuguese and Irish bonds, where a sudden move sent the curve to an unprecedented inverted levels as if by a fat finger across the board. Note the dramatic move in the 5 Year of both countries' bonds without any catalytic newsflow, which sent the Portuguese 5 Year to a lifetime high 7.93%. Have the stock HFT algos gone rogue and are now taking over the sovereign bond space?

Portugal:

Ireland:

And combined PIGS yield curves. Pick the odd one out.

Comments

[whatz that smell]

never trade against the fat-finger algo, btchz.

[Ignorance is bliss]

Now the Irish have a real reason to start drinking.

[ZeroPower]

EURUSD no dramatic moves currently besides quake drop. 

[Orly]

Waiting for the retail sales shoe to drop...

[ZeroPower]

Hi Orly

Im guessing you had a fun day with the JPY pairs yesterday?

Hope you werent caught on the wrong side. (Besides initial reaction, IMO, no way JPY keeps rising on this macro news..)

[Apostle of Unknown]

Ein Flasch Krasch sofort bitte!

[Catullus]

Japanese investors liquidating bonds? 

[gwar5]

F' me. What the hell is going on?

[falak pema]

Berlusconi bunga-bunga is catching on fast. As libya starts to fry. Italy is in the hot seat, Spain and Greece in deep melt. Angela is suffering deep withdrawal pains. I wonder what type of yoga JCT inflicts on his physical self to stay in one piece, insane mathematically but so convincing in ivory tower virtuality.

[Djirk]

Berlusconi had to sell some positions for hooker hush money and to bribe city officials to change the official birthdates of all his girlfriends

[gmrpeabody]

Too funny... but BRILLIANT!

[pendragon]

these are junk bonds. a 10 bp move is the square root of jack all.... just noise

[bob_dabolina]

Hillary Clinton needs a fat finger

[Sudden Debt]

IN HER ASS!!

[gorillaonyourback]

lol, any volunteers

[andybev01]

not even with your finger...

[sudzee]

Circlejerk of CB free digital tickets just lost one of it's largest players, Japan. US ponzi will break down shortly as the Japanese disgorges phantom US debt. No-one left to buy.

[rayban]

Since 11:13 CET DJ Newswire has reported the following:

Germany wants ESM to be used only if Euro is in peril - Official

Portugal may ask for IMF bailout after German 'NO' on EFSF - Official

Germany won't allow EFSF to buy bonds - Official

EFSF lending could be raised to full EUR440B at "Best Case" - Official

Germany won't allow EFSF to buy bonds - Official

Pretty material to me. Other news services have not followed up on the lead, but both the Euro and spreads have started to worsen since then. Noticeable exception the core 2 (Spain and Italy). Italy today sold 2.8 bn in 5 year paper at 3.9% and 1.8 bn 15-year bonds at 5.34%. BTPs have improved across the curve since the auctions have closed.

[Ferg .]

Don't know why Irish yields are spiking , no immediate catalyst that I can see .

[M.B. Drapier]

Could it be related to the ugly-looking data on the Irish banks (the ELA-junkie core six, that is) just released by the Central Bank of Ireland?

[hugovanderbubble]

Cos Haircuts Sir,

CLose to 30% in Portuguese Bonds

25% in Spanish Gov.

[hugovanderbubble]

Short Spanish Banks

[Josephine29]

Perhaps markets have finally fullly wised up to the usual run of events in the Euro zone which I saw described earlier as.

Whilst the next main meeting of Euro zone ministers is not until the 24th of March Euro zone politicians are meeting today and we may get some more news on their plans (assuming they have some!). The usual course is for all sorts of plans to be promised plenty of hyperbole and then some combination of unrealistic expectations and dissent shooting it down!http://notayesmanseconomics.wordpress.com

[barkingbill]

it's a flash rally

[uhb]

My HFT Box trades the german bund future quite well, thanks ;) Sell the fvcking dip, bitchez!