Australian bonds plunge tracking U.S. Treasuries on hopes of trade deal ahead of G-20 Summit

Australian government bonds plunged during Asian trading session Thursday tracking a similar movement in the United States’ Treasuries on hopes of a trade deal with China in the upcoming G-20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, scheduled to start from tomorrow, which repelled investors from buying safe-haven assets.

The yield on Australia’s benchmark 10-year note, which moves inversely to its price, jumped 7 basis points to 1.356 percent, the yield on the long-term 30-year bond also surged 7 basis points to 1.971 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year gained 6-1/2 basis points to 0.996 percent by 04:30GMT.

Global risk appetite wobbled slightly overnight as US president Trump warned of “plan B for China is to take in billions and billions of dollars a month and we’ll do less and less business with them”, OCBC Treasury Research reported.

This raises the stakes going into the Trump-Xi meeting at the G20 summit this Saturday. S&P500 closed slightly softer while the 10-year UST bond yield rose to 2.05 percent, the report added.

Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 index remained 0.45 percent higher at 6,586.50 by 04:35GMT, while at 040:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly AUD Strength Index remained slightly bullish at 81.47 (a reading above +75 indicates a bullish trend, while that below -75 a bearish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex