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The Japanese government bonds remained narrowly mixed during late Asian session Thursday amid silent trading hours that witnessed data of little economic significance after the country’s super-long 30-year bond auction attracted a sufficient amount of demand ahead of the household spending data for the month of December, scheduled to be released today by 23:30GMT.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year JGB note, which moves inversely to its price, remained tad lower at -0.009 percent, the yield on the long-term 30-year hovered around 0.592 percent while the yield on short-term 2-year plunged 15 basis points to -0.153 percent by 06:00GMT.
According to a report from Reuters, the bid-to-cover ratio, a gauge of demand, at the 700 billion yen ($6.37 billion) 30-year auction on Thursday rose to 4.72 from 4.03 at the previous sale in January. Further, the new 30-years were seen to have attracted buyers as the maturities still offer yields above zero percent.
Overnight, the S&P500 marked its first decline in six sessions amid thin volumes, whereas the 10-year UST bond underperformed amid a tepid $27 billion bond auction (with a bid-cover ratio of 2.35x versus an average of 2.50x), OCBC Treasury Research reported.
Lastly, U.S. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and Lighthizer have headed to China for further trade negotiations next week. President Trump in his State of the Union address urged Congress to pass the US Reciprocal Trade Act, which according to Commerce Secretary Ross will be a “significant tool to create an incentive for countries to end their abuses and negotiate trade agreements with us”, the report further noted.
Meanwhile, the Nikkei 225 index closed 0.54 percent lower at 20,761.00, while at 06:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly JPY Strength Index remained neutral at 35.24 (a reading above +75 indicates a bullish trend, while that below -75 a bearish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex
