Government Bond Yields Are Sinking Around The World

Government bond yields are sinking across the advanced economies this morning. It looks a lot like investors are moving towards the safety of government debt as stocks sink around the world.

Investors typically move into government bonds, which don't make them a lot of money, when there's a lot of risk elsewhere. Treasuries are regarded as very safe investments, but the more demand there is for them, the lower yields go and the less of a return a buyer gets.

In Europe, French, Dutch, Austrian, Belgian and Finnish 10-year yields hit record lows, according to Twitter's Fabrizio Goria. Germany's 10-year yield is sitting at just 0.51%, and Japan's just dropped below 0.30% for the first time ever.

10-year US treasury yields are back below 2% again for the first time since October, when they fell for a very brief period. Yields haven't been below 2% for any sustained period since the first half of 2013. Here's some context: 

Jamie McGeever at Reuters has a great graph from Citi, showing the effect of all this. 10-year government bonds issued in G3 currencies (the US dollar, the euro and yen) are now yielding below 1% for the first time ever.