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The Australian government bonds slumped on Thursday, following US trend, after reading stronger-than-expected producer prices data for June, coupled with maintained improvement in jobless claims. Also, investors booked profits on the last day of the week after relishing the previous rally due to Brexit angst.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to its price rose nearly 6 basis points to 2.003 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year note jumped 3 basis points to 1.665 percent by 04:00 GMT.
The June US Labor Department producer prices index (PPI) report revealed an overall increase of +0.5 percent m/m result, comes in above market expectations for a +0.3 percent m/m reading, as compared to the +0.4 percent m/m increase that occurred in May.
Similarly, the US Initial jobless claims for the week ending 9 July held unchanged at 254k, well below expectations for a 265k result, from the unrevised 254k reading seen in the week prior.
On Thursday, Australian unemployment rate surged to 5.8 percent in June, in the line of market consensus of 5.8 percent, as compared to 5.7 percent in May. Similarly, June employment change rose to 7,900, lower than the markets expectation for 10,000, from 17,900 in May. Apart from this, the full-time employment change rose to 38,400, as compared to previous 2,500 in May. Also, part-time employment change fell 30,600, from 16,600, revised from 17,900 in May. The participation rate rose 64.9 percent, against investor’s expectations for 64.8 percent, from prior 64.8 percent.
In addition, the Melbourne Institute’s survey of consumer inflation expectations rose to 3.7 percent in July, as compared to 3.5 percent in June. Investors will remain keen to focus on the RBA second-quarter inflation report, which is expected to get released at the end of the month.
Lastly, investors will remain keen to focus on the RBA July monetary policy minutes, which is scheduled for Tuesday at 01:30 GMT. Meanwhile, the benchmark Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index was trading up 0.04 percent, or 2 points, at 5,391.5 by 05:00 GMT.
