LONDON, March 29 Reuters Euro zone government bond yields steadied in early Monday trading while the German debt took a breather after notching up its best weekly performance in 312 months as rising COVID19 cases sent investors scurrying back to safehaven assets.

Core euro zone bond yields have fallen in recent weeks as a resurgence in cases of COVID19 and new lockdowns in Germany, France and elsewhere, rattle investor confidence in the regions economic recovery.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel over the weekend pressured states to step up their pandemic response to try to stem the rise in cases.

In early trading, the German 10year yield stood unchanged on the day at 0.354. Last week the yield fell almost 6 basis points, its biggest drop since December.

While broader market attention focused on the refloating of the ship blocking the Suez Canal, bond investors are preparing for euro zone and U.S consumer confidence data due on Tuesday to see how the latest wave of COVID19 is impacting consumer sentiment, as well as preliminary euro zone inflation data.

This quarter German bonds have outperformed U.S. Treasuries, where fears of a spike in inflation have sparked a significant selloff.

With the European Central Bank increasing the pace of its asset purchases and attention turning to challenges linked to Europes slow vaccination rollout, euro zone bond yields have fallen in March, in contrast to bond yields in the United States, which have continued to rise.

But some…