The Japanese government bonds plunged Wednesday as US Treasuries slipped after two Federal Reserve officials revived hopes the US central bank may raise its policy rates by year-end.
The benchmark 10-year bond yield, which moves inversely to its price, rose nearly 2 basis points to -0.075 percent, the super-long 30-year JGB yield jumped 1 basis point to 0.363 percent, the 5-year JGB yield bounced more than 1 basis point to -0.153 percent and the short-term 2-year JGB yield climbed 1 basis point to -0.179 percent by 06:00 GMT.
The JGBs plunge as the New York Fed President William Dudley and Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart that renewed a possible push to raise rates in the coming months by the Federal Reserve, both suggesting that September was very much a live meeting and that current data performance at least warrants the discussion.
Markets now look ahead to the afternoon release of minutes from the 26-27 July FOMC meeting, which could further recent sentiment in the direction of pricing in a rate hike before year-end.
Meanwhile, the benchmark Nikkei 225 closed up +0.90 percent at 16,745.64 and the broader Topix index closed 0.97 percent higher to 1,311.13 points.
