Euro zone bond yields rose slightly on Wednesday after falling during the two previous sessions as investors positioned for more rate cuts from the European Central Bank.

Weak European survey data, a downbeat German business morale report, and a fall in U.S. consumer confidence have added momentum to bets that the ECB could lower rates again in October, after two previous 25 basis point cuts this year. Germany's 10-year bond yield, the benchmark for the euro zone bloc, rose 3 bps to 2.163% after falling 9 bps across the previous two sessions. Yields move inversely to prices.

Germany's two-year bond yield, which is sensitive to European Central Bank rate expectations, was up 2 bps at 2.113%, after falling 16 bps across Monday and Tuesday.

Money market pricing showed traders pricing in a roughly 55% chance of an ECB interest rate cut in October, up from around 15% at the start of the week. The ECB cut rates in June and earlier this month.

"We still see a lower chance of a cut for the 17 October meeting since it effectively holds little new data on top of what the European Central Bank will have known in September," said Benjamin Schroeder, senior rates strategist at ING.

"European rates may be getting too far ahead of themselves and are being dragged down excessively by U.S. markets," he said.

The U.S. Federal Reserve cut rates by 50 bps last week.

Investors have been keeping a close eye on French yields, which yesterday rose above Spain's for the first time since 2008 due to concerns about the new government's ability to tackle the budget deficit.

The gap between French and German 10-year yields fell 2 bps to 75 bps. It shot to its highest level since 2012 above 85 bps during France's parliamentary elections.

Data on Wednesday showed French consumer confidence picked up this month while an ECB survey suggested wage pressures were easing across the euro zone.

Italy's 10-year yield rose 2 bps to 3.498%, and the gap between Italian and German yields stood at 132 bps.

(Reporting by Harry Robertson Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Christina Fincher)