At least for now, a tweak/Some earnings comments and coffee prices going higher/Gold, China stays put in May

European bond yields are up for a 2nd day in response to what seems to be for now more of a tweak in interest rates rather than a commitment to a string of rate cuts by the ECB. A slew of ECB members are speaking today expressing that. I guess what else are they going to say after the day they raise inflation estimates but decide to cut rates. They even had a dissent from Robert Holzmann who doesn't believe the war on inflation has been won and he too used the term 'hawkish cut' by the committee. 

The German contingency in particular expressed their views post rate cut. Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel said "As the future inflation outlook remains uncertain, we cannot pre-commit to a particular rate path." Bundesbank president Joachim Nagel said something similar, "We on the ECB Governing Council are not driving on auto-pilot when it comes to interest rate cuts."

The euro is holding its slight gain from yesterday while stocks in the region are down across the board. 

This is something that I've talked about for a while as a possibility here when the Fed finally decides to start cutting rates. That maybe if the long end of the yield curve is not comfortable with the Fed's backing off from its inflation fight (even with moderating inflation being a reason because the sustainability of that still remains a question), long rates go up as short rates go down. At least early on, that is what is happening in European bonds as the German 10 yr yield for example is not far off from its highest level since last November just as the ECB has lowered rates by 25 bps. 

Here are some earnings call comments of note: