Australian bonds jump in silent trading ahead of RBA Assistant Governor Kent’s speech

Australian government bonds jumped during Asian session of the first trading day of the week Monday amid a muted trading session that witnessed data of little economic significance ahead of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) Assistant Governor Christopher Kent’s speech, scheduled to be held today at 22:30GMT.

The yield on Australia’s benchmark 10-year note, which moves inversely to its price, slumped 2-1/2 basis points to 1.335 percent, the yield on the long-term 30-year bond also suffered 2-1/2 basis points to 1.978 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year traded nearly 1 basis point down at 0.954 percent by 05:00GMT.

Asia looks set to start the week on a soft tone amid heightened tensions in the Persian Gulf (after Iran seized a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz) as well as weak leads from US financial markets on Friday, OCBC Treasury Research reported.

While market players are anticipating the Fed to trim interest rates on July 30, nevertheless the walking back of 50bp rate cut expectations, coupled with the blackout for Fed speeches in the run-up to FOMC, may see attention turning to US economic data releases and the ongoing earnings season (with Amazon.com, Alphabet, Unilever, Caterpillar, Coca-Cola, McDonalds and Boeing due), the report added.

Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 index remained tad 0.05 percent higher at 6,619.50 by 05:05GMT.