German bonds: Price losses at the start of the week - Ifo index in focus

FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - German government bond prices fell again at the start of the week. The benchmark Euro Bund future fell 0.16 percent to 129.11 points on Monday morning. In contrast, the yield on ten-year German government bonds rose to 2.76 percent.

On Friday, bonds had benefited from the Federal Reserve Chairman's speech at the conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Jerome Powell had opened the door for a key interest rate cut, also citing the recent weak labor market data.

At the beginning of the week, the focus shifted to the most important sentiment barometer for German industry. The Ifo business climate index rose by 0.4 points in August, despite higher US tariffs, for the sixth consecutive month. However, the bond market barely reacted to the data; analysts had already expected a further increase, albeit not quite to this extent.

"The increase in the expectations component shows that companies are overweighting the positive aspect of better planning over the undoubted burden of higher tariff rates," wrote analyst Elmar Völker of Landesbank Baden-Württemberg. The current situation, however, remains bleak, which argues against a real improvement in growth figures in the current quarter. "But at least: towards the end of the year, hopes for an upward trend are growing somewhat," the expert concluded.