Race For Negative 30-Year Yields Underway, Swiss In Front With 0.295%

 | Jan 20, 2015 01:41AM ET

As of the end of Monday January 19, 2015, European 10-year yields are as follows:

  • Germany 10-Year bond yields 0.441%
  • France 10-Year bonds yields .641%
  • Spain 10-Year bonds yields 1.526%
  • Switzerland 10-Year bonds yield -0.074%


At least the first three are positive.

Congratulations (of sorts) to Switzerland for winning the race to negative yields on 10-year government bonds.

As of today, you can pay Switzerland 0.074% for the privilege of lending to the Swiss government for 10-years.

It was a hard-fought battle, but last week in response to the euro peg removal, Swiss LIBOR Hits Record Low -0.72 Percent

The three-month benchmark Swiss bank-to-bank Libor lending rate fell to a record low of minus 0.372 percent on Thursday after the Swiss National Bank cut interest rates and abandoned its cap on the franc.

The SNB cut the interest rate by 0.5 percentage points to 0.75 percent on sight deposit account balances -- cash commercial banks and other financial institutions hold with the central bank -- above a certain threshold.

also expanded its three-month Libor target range to -1.25 percent and -0.25 percent from the previous range of -0.75 percent to 0.25 percent.

Blue Ribbons Galore

Switzerland is racking up blue ribbons left and right. It was also the winner in the race to negative yields on the 5-year bond.

But the granddaddy prize of all still awaits: The blue ribbon for negative yields on the 30-year bond.

As preposterous as that may sound, Switzerland is headed that way.

Switzerland 30-Year