JGBs nearly flat ahead of September Tokyo core CPI amid muted trading day

The Japanese government bonds closed nearly flat Thursday ahead of Tokyo’s core consumer price inflation (CPI) data for the month of September, scheduled to be released today by 23:30GMT amid a muted trading day that barely witnessed data of major economic significance.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year JGB note, which moves inversely to its price, plunged 20 basis points to -0.240 percent, the yield on the long-term 30-year suffered nearly 2 basis points to 0.337 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year slumped 16 basis points to -0.319 percent.

US President Trump and Japanese PM Abe signed the first stage of an initial trade agreement, OCBC Treasury Research reported.

In the near term, the USD may remain susceptible to impeachment concerns but broader risk aversion may well continue to muddy the dollar’s broader directionality. Apart from global macro negativity, note that broader Sino-US trade tensions remain near the surface with Trump’s isolationist address and diatribe against China at the UN, OCBC noted in a separate report.

"In the interim, USD-JPY may continue to be biased lower, either on the back of discretionary USD vulnerability and/or broader risk aversion. On a relative basis, we retain a heavy bias for the EUR-CNH and EUR-AUD with the PBOC still refraining from all out monetary accommodation," the report further commented.

Meanwhile, the Nikkei 225 index closed tad up at 22,048.24.