Lisbon bonds under pressure

Portugal just can’t shake off its bears. The nation’s shorter-term notes are under-performing their counterparts across the eurozone even as a recovery in stocks and oil prices boosted demand for higher-yielding assets.

The extra yield, or spread, that investors get for holding Portuguese two-year debt instead of similar-maturity notes of Germany climbed for a second day yesterday.

The country’s two-year yields are more than 1 percentage point higher than those in neighbouring Spain, whose leaders have been unable to form a government after inconclusive elections in December.