U.S. Treasury bonds strengthened Wednesday as investors switched out of eurozone government bonds ahead of the European Central Bank’s monetary policy meeting in the coming session.

Eurozone bonds had rallied this month with yields hitting record lows, driven by expectation that the ECB will follow the Federal Reserve and some other major central banks to launch a program to buy government bonds to jump-start a stagnant economy and ward off a deflation threat.

On Wednesday, some investors cashed in chips from the recent rally, as they are concerned that the ECB may fail to live up to investors’ expectations in terms of fresh monetary stimulus.

Ewald Nowotny, a top official at the ECB, said Wednesday that policy makers and central bankers should retain a longer-term perspective and not get overexcited about Thursday’s meeting.

“The U.S. is getting some of the flows from Europe,” said Andrew Brenner, head of international fixed income at National Alliance Capital Markets in New York. “The dollar is stronger with the potential for upside. Our yields are significantly better than many countries in the eurozone and we don’t have the fear of a central bank mistake Thursday.”

In recent trading, the yield on the benchmark 10-year note fell to 1.779% from 1.806% on Tuesday, according to Tradeweb.

Bond prices rise as their yields fall.

The yield fell to 1.777% last Thursday, the lowest closing level since May 2013. The yield was 2.173% at the end of 2014.

Investors had piled into ultra-safe U.S. government bonds this month, driven by an uncertain global growth outlook and deflation concerns in Europe amid slumping oil prices since June. Deflation, or a persistent fall in consumer prices, boosts the value of fixed-income assets, attracting buyers who are worried about the risk.

The ECB’s monetary policy meeting due Thursday is the main focus for global investors this week, which will shape the direction of bond yields in the short term.

Wednesday’s selling in eurozone bonds was moderate amid profit-taking. Traders say the region’s bond market may strengthen if the ECB rolls out an ambitious program that outpaces market expectations. Such a prospect contained the selling pressure, traders said.

The yield on the 10-year government bond in Italy on Wednesday rose by about 0.06 percentage point to 1.735% and the yield on the 10-year government bond in Spain ticked up by about 0.03 percentage point to 1.559%, according to Tradeweb.

The yield on the 10-year government bond in Germany, the benchmark for eurozone debt markets, increased by 0.04 percentage point to 0.435%, according to Tradeweb. The yield closed at a record low of 0.387% Monday.

Lower bond yields this month mean lower income for bond investors. With global government-bond yields falling sharply over the past year, some investors say bond yields at these slim levels provide little value.

They caution that if sentiment on the global growth outlook brightens, the bond market is vulnerable for a selloff as demand for haven bonds will diminish.

Fed officials indicated last month that they are prepared to raise interest rates in 2015, seeing the impact of falling oil prices on lower inflation as transitory. Fed officials took note of weaker growth overseas, but so far this factor hasn’t pushed them to reassess the timing for higher interest rates.

Interest-rate futures markets show investors and traders expect the Fed to be patient and wait until the second half of 2015 to raise rates, which has encouraged investors to buy bonds.