Rarely can a market have changed direction with such speed. For most of 2015 European government-bond yields had been heading lower, with the German ten-year yield on a seemingly inexorable path towards zero. Shorter-term German bonds were already offering negative rates, meaning that investors who held the debt to maturity were bound to lose money. Then, in the middle of April, the markets turned and yields started rising again (which means that bond prices fell). Germany's ten-year yield is now back where it was at the start of the year. The sell-off has driven yields in the rest of Europe higher as well (see chart).
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