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STORY: World government bonds went through an unrelenting selloff on Wednesday (October 4).

And that has driven U.S. 30-year Treasury yields to 5% for the first time since 2007, while German 10-year yields were at 3%.

Those moves could speed up a global slowdown - hurting stocks and corporate bonds.

It comes with a growing sense that interest rates in major economies will stay higher for longer to contain inflation.

And ever resilient U.S. economic data and a sharp unwinding of traders' positions for a bond rally have also hit home.

The U.S. Treasury market is considered the bedrock of the global financial system.

It has seen 10-year yields jump 20 basis points to 4.8% this week alone.

They are up almost 100 bps this year, having jumped over 200 last year.

Bond yields move in the other direction to prices, and asset managers who had held bonds expecting prices to rally are now giving up.

One leading analyst told Reuters there was 'huge momentum' behind the sell off in Treasuries because positioning in the market has been wrong.

Both U.S. & German yields were up, while Australian and Canadian 10-year bond yields also surged over 20 basis points this week.

British 30-year government bond yields hit a fresh 25-year high above 5% on Wednesday, too.

The speed of the bond rout caused alarm across equity markets.

That drove the safe-haven dollar to its highest in months against the euro, pound and Japanese yen.

World stocks also hit their lowest since April on Wednesday.