Australian 10-year bond yield over 1-week low following surprise fall in October employment data

The Australian 10-year government bond yield slumped to over 1-week low during Asian session Thursday after the country’s employment report for the month of October created a surprise disappointment among investors, as jobless rate rose and employment change slumped.

The yield on Australia’s benchmark 10-year note, which moves inversely to its price, plunged over 9-1/2 basis points to 1.180 percent, the yield on the long-term 30-year bond slumped over 10 basis points to 1.782 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year plummeted nearly 7 basis points to 0.794 percent by 04:50GMT.

The sharp fall in Australian employment will be causing concern for the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the unemployment rate is seen to further rise in the coming months, Capital Economics reported.

The sharp 19,000 fall in employment in October was the largest decline in three years and well below the Bloomberg median forecast of a rise of 15,000. Annual employment growth eased from 2.5 percent in September to 2.0 percent in October, the report added.

"Further, the unemployment rate bounced back from 5.2 percent to 5.3 percent and the only reason why it didn’t rise even more was that the participation rate fell for the second consecutive month. Our view is that the participation rate is more likely to rise in coming months adding further upward pressure on the unemployment rate," Capital Economics further noted in the report.

Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 index edged tad 0.54 percent higher to 6,738.50 by 04:55GMT.