Men are reflected on an electronic board showing the Nikkei stock index outside a brokerage in Tokyo March 25, 2019. — Reuters pic
Much of the action was switching between stocks as investors sold coronavirus winners to buy beaten-down equities. The yield on benchmark 10-year US Treasuries posted on Tuesday its highest close since March, though US bond markets are shut today. Bond yields rise when prices fall. Investors have pivoted to riskier plays in equities, foreign exchange and bonds after Pfizer Inc said on Monday its Covid-19 vaccine candidate, developed with BioNTech, showed a 90 per cent success rate in preventing infection during trials.
“For names geared towards so-called normalisation of activity, could continue to play out in coming days.” New Zealand bonds crumbled as traders swiftly re-priced a much lower likelihood of negative rates, lifting the 10-year yield by 14.5 basis points to 0.898 per cent, the steepest one-day rise since panic selling in March.