Australian bonds tad higher after Powell speaks of 'appropriate' measures amid low inflation

Australian government bonds remained tad higher during Asian trading session Thursday tracking a similar movement in the U.S. Treasuries after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell put out a dovish testimony in front of the House Financial Services Committee, indicating a greater probability of a 25bps cut at the July FOMC meeting.

The yield on Australia’s benchmark 10-year note, which moves inversely to its price, slipped 1-1/2 basis points to 1.337 percent, the yield on the long-term 30-year bond remained flat at 1.977 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year suffered 2-1/2 basis points to 0.955 percent by 05:00GMT.

The Fed Chair mentioned that “crosscurrents” such as the trade tensions, “concerns about global growth” and inflation “running below the Federal Open Market Committee’s symmetric 2 percent objective” have been “weighing on economic activity and outlook”, OCBC Treasury Research reported.

When questioned about whether the US June jobs data had changed his outlook, he went on to reply “No” and also further stated that wage and benefit hikes of over 3% barely cover productivity increases and inflation. However, he did not directly respond when asked about the possibility of 50bps cut even as some in the market bet on that, the report added.

Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 index edged tad 0.42 percent higher to 6,664.50 by 05:05GMT.