Financial data provider Bloomberg LP Tuesday said it is
investigating the cause of an error which led it to switch its
benchmark 10-year Spanish bond, a move that caused confusion in
currency markets.
The change to using a bond maturing in January 2024 instead of
the previous January 2022 benchmark prompted a flurry of media
reports that Spanish 10-year government bond yields had surged back
above 6%, a rise of around 0.3 percentage points from Monday's
close.
Bloomberg said the change was made in error and has been
reversed. The company, which competes with Dow Jones Newswires as a
news and data provider, said it had notified all its clients of the
mistake.
"We're investigating the root cause of the issue," a Bloomberg
spokeswoman said.
Traders at Citigroup said confusion over the correct benchmarks
contributed to a 0.5% slide in the euro against the dollar in early
European trading. "Some systems have been showing the wrong
Bund/Bono spread and were spooked when the "old" spread moved out
by apparently more than 30 basis points," the bank said in a note
to clients.
A Spanish Treasury spokesman confirmed that the country had not
changed its benchmark bond. Several government bond traders
contacted by Dow Jones Newswires, and the data provider Tradeweb,
said they were still using the 2022 bond as the benchmark, while
moves in secondary market trading were muted.
At 0925 GMT the yield on the 2022 bond was up 4 basis points at
5.73%, according to Tradeweb.
(Art Patnaude in Madrid contributed to this article.)
Write to Tommy Stubbington at tommy.stubbington@dowjones.com
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