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Australian bonds slumped across the board on the first day of the trading week Monday following weakness in the U.S. Treasuries, where the latter’s 10-year yields rose to highest since January 2014.
The yield on Australia’s benchmark 10-year Note, which moves inversely to its price, rose 4-1/2 basis points to 2.867 percent, the yield on the long-term 30-year Note jumped 3-1/2 basis points to 3.429 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year also surged 2 basis points to 2.147 percent by 02:50 GMT.
In the United States, Treasuries saw further selling to finish off the week on Friday during a relatively quiet session light on economic data of great significance, managing to push the 10-year Note to its highest level since January 2014. In terms of Fed speakers, markets continued to see widespread support of continued rate hikes, this time coming from San Francisco Fed President Williams and Fed Governor Brainard.
Although he has been less supportive of the current path of Fed tightening, Minneapolis Fed President Kashkari indicated the Fed was not seeing any signs of a pending crisis and that market correction would not drive Fed policy. Looking ahead, markets now await a lighter flow of data in the week ahead, highlighted by durable goods orders on Thursday and advance 1Q18 GDP data on Friday. Additionally, markets receive 2-year Note, 5-year Note and 7-year Note auctions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
Last week, Australia employment growth dipped to 4.9K in March, lower than the market expectations of 20.3K, up from -6.3K. The unemployment remained steady at 5.5 percent, in line with economists estimate. Markets now await Tuesday’s Q1 CPI data, expected to come at 0.5% q/q and 2% y/y.
Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 index traded 0.48 percent higher at 5,862.5 by 02:55 GMT, while at 02:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly AUD Strength Index remained slightly bearish at -82.48 (a reading above +75 indicates a bullish trend, while that below -75 a bearish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex
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