Australian bonds narrowly mixed in subdued trade; August retail sales data fail to cheer markets

Australian government bonds traded narrowly mixed during subdued Friday session as investors remain sidelined in any major deal ahead of the U.S. September non-farm payroll data.

The yield on Australia’s benchmark 10-year note, which moves inversely to its price, traded flat at 2.720 percent, the yield on the long-term 30-year bond also remained steady at 3.209 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year down nearly 1 basis point to 1.999 percent by 03:50GMT.

“The US yield curve continued to steepen as intermediate and long end yields pushed higher during the session before coming back. Other global markets followed in what has been one of the larger rises in yields in the last few years. Markets remain vulnerable given the payrolls data release tonight,” noted ANZ Bank in its morning focus report.

“Investors will be looking to the US non-farm payroll data; this will set the direction for gold prices next week. Oil prices should remain resilient amid looming supply losses in this quarter.”

On the data front, retail sales bounced back, rising 0.3 percent m/m in August after a flat outcome the previous month, which pushes annual growth up to 3.8 percent y/y, the fastest pace since May 2017. In three month end annualised terms, retail sales are up a solid 5.3 percent. However, this failed to cheer investors to sell-off bonds.

On the other hand, trade tension between U.S. and China is also a concern going ahead. A full-fledged trade war between the world’s two big economies will impact China's sixth largest trading partner, Australia.

“News of a supposed China tiny chip hack into top US technology companies could also herald extra headwinds for US-China bilateral relations going forward amid the current escalating trade tensions,” noted OCBC Bank in its Treasury outlook report.

“The US-China relationship turned from bad to worse after US Vice President Mike Pence delivered his most hawkish criticism against China on a broad range of topics such as China’s alleged meddling on US elections, China’s unfair trade practices, Taiwan issues as well as freedom of religion etc”

Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 index traded 0.46% higher at 6,179.5 by 04:00 GMT, while at 04:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly AUD Strength Index remained highly bearish at -121.10 (a reading above +75 indicates a bullish trend, while that below -75 a bearish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex