'Dark clouds' ahead for European sovereign bonds

Five factors influencing negative rates

Since the European Central Bank's (ECB) last meeting and press conference on 9 March, there has been plenty of back and forth about the sequencing of ECB monetary policy actions.

At that press conference, ECB President Mario Draghi dodged reporters' questions as to whether the ECB could raise the deposit rate before quantitative easing ends, which is expected to happen in 2018.  In the aftermath of the meeting, newswire sources reported 'people familiar with the matter' as saying that ECB Governing Council members exchanged views on ways of communicating and sequencing an exit from unconventional stimulus.  ECB extends QE until end of 2017 but tapers purchases However, this week we heard that ECB staff believe the ECB comments about sequencing have been 'ov...