Australian 10-year bond yield hits 1-month high tracking U.S. peer after better-than-expected June CPI

Australian 10-year government bond yield hit 1-month high during Asian session of the last trading day of the week Friday, tracking a similar movement in the U.S. Treasuries after the United States’ consumer price inflation (CPI) for the month of June came in stronger than market expectations.

This in turn, hurt the super-long 30-year auction, also held late yesterday, besides, Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s extremely dovish testimony in front of the House Financial Services Committee.

The yield on Australia’s benchmark 10-year note, which moves inversely to its price, surged 10-1/2 basis points to 1.445 percent, the yield on the long-term 30-year bond jumped 11-1/2 basis points to 2.092 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year traded nearly 4-1/2 basis points to 0.997 percent by 04:30GMT.

Wall Street saw a late rally to eke out fresh record highs, whilst the USD pared losses on a stronger-than-expected US’ CPI inflation print. Further, UST bonds sold off and pushed the 10-year yield to 2.15 percent, with the longer tenors worst hit due to a weak 30-year bond auction which saw the yield climbing to 2.64 percent (highest since May 30), despite Fed chair Powell reiterating his dovish message in his second day of congressional testimony, which sets the stage for a 25bp rate cut at the July 30 FOMC meeting, OCBC Treasury Research reported.

"Asian markets may tread water today after US president Trump tweeted to complain that China “is letting us down in that they have not been buying the agricultural products from our great Farmers that they said they would," the report added.

Lastly, the U.S. Treasury Department sold $34 billion worth of 30-year bonds. The bid-to-cover ratio, a measurement of demand, came in at 2.13. That’s well below its 12-month average of 2.27, CNBC reported.

Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 index edged tad 0.20 percent higher to 6,643.50 by 04:35GMT, while at 05:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly AUD Strength Index remained neutral at 44.80 (a reading above +75 indicates a bullish trend, while that below -75 a bearish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex