Eurozone government bond yields rallied in line with U.S. Treasury yields on Saturday (Dec. 3) after the U.S. released higher-than-expected nonfarm payroll employment figures. Hourly worker wages were also higher than expected. This could be a factor the Federal Reserve (Fed) will consider in its next interest rate decision. The yield on 10-year German government bonds, the benchmark for eurozone government bonds, rose 0.05% to 1.872%, while the yield on two-year bonds, which are more sensitive to interest rate expectations, rose 0.08% to 2.12%.
Nonfarm payrolls figures were the last major economic data before the Fed’s final monetary policy meeting of the year on Dec. 13-14. The U.S. Department of Labor reported that nonfarm payrolls increased by 263,000 in November. The unemployment rate remained stable at 3.7%.
The average hourly earnings of workers increased 0.6% month-over-month and 5.1% year-over-year. The hourly earnings figures are the data that the Fed uses as an indicator of inflation.