Updates prices, adds detail and analyst comment
By Joice Alves and Amanda Cooper
LONDON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Euro zone bond yields edged higher on Thursday after upbeat results from AI bellwether Nvidia bolstered risk assets such as stocks, though enthusiasm was kept in check by delayed U.S. jobs data showing unemployment rose in September.
With investors feeling more positive, for now, about the resilience of the stock market and the AI story that underpins it, bonds have come under pressure. Bond yields move inversely to price.
This has come more at the longer end of the curve, where yields in Japan have hit record highs, while those on UK and U.S. debt have cranked to their highest in weeks.
Long-dated German bond yields have been no exception, with 30-year debt now at 3.36%, its highest since early September.
Two-year Schatz yields DE2YT=RR were flat at 2.02%, having declined by about 2.3 bps this week, in contrast with the 1.4 bps rise in 30-year yields, a dynamic known as curve steepening.
U.S. UNEMPLOYMENT RISES IN SEPTEMBER
With no market-moving European data on Thursday, investor attention was pinned on the U.S. jobs report, which had been delayed by the 43-day government shutdown.
The data showed that the U.S. unemployment rate rose in September even as employers added more jobs than economists had expected.
The benchmark German 10-year Bund yield DE10YT=RR was up 1.6 basis points at 2.72%, its highest since early October. It briefly followed U.S. Treasuries US10YT=RR a tad lower.
"Despite the move lower in Treasury yields, this report doesn't change our outlook for a December pause by the Fed," said Collin Martin, head of fixed-income research and strategy at Schwab Center.
"It suggests the labour market is cooling, but probably not enough to move the needle for the committee members that are worried about inflation."
The European Central Bank, meanwhile, is not expected to move rates at all in the coming year, based on the swaps market.
Against that backdrop, the yield premium that U.S. 10-year Treasuries command over 10-year Bunds DE10US10=RR has been hovering around 141 bps, not far off September's 135 bps, the lowest in nearly two years.
($1 = 0.8684 euros)
(Reporting by Joice Alves and Amanda Cooper in LondonEditing by Ros Russell and David Goodman)
((Joice.alves@thomsonreuters.com))
