Australian bond yields slump tracking U.S. peer as temporary trade deal optimism fades

The Australian government bond yields slumped during Asian session Thursday tracking a similar movement in the United States’ counterpart after temporary optimism over the U.S.-China trade deal faded.

The latest meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to sign a limited trade agreement led to possibilities of a delay until December, owing to uncertainty over the terms and venue.

The yield on Australia’s benchmark 10-year note, which moves inversely to its price, plunged 6 basis points to 1.211 percent, the yield on the long-term 30-year bond also slumped 6 basis points to 1.793 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year suffered 4 basis points at 0.869 percent by 04:30GMT.

Risk sentiments may be dented by hints that the signing of the Phase 1 of the US-China trade deal between Trump and Xi may be delayed till December. Meanwhile, Fed’s Williams opined that monetary policy is “moderately accommodative” and the Fed will be data-dependent and pre-emptive, whilst Evans also suggested policy settings “is good for the real risks that the economy is facing” and for “getting inflation to 2 percent”, OCBC Treasury Research reported.

Lastly, Australia’s monthly trade surplus rose to $7180 million in September, a decent gain on the upwardly revised August result and matching the more than $7,000 million monthly surpluses recorded in June and July, ANZ Research reported.

Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 index edged tad 0.71 percent to 6,701.50 by 04:35GMT.