Australian bonds remain flat in muted trading amid rise in China’s death tolls

The Australian bonds remained flat during Asian session of the last trading day of the week Friday amid a muted trading session that witnessed data of little economic significance amid rise in China’s death tolls from the Coronavirus.

The yield on Australia’s benchmark 10-year note, which moves inversely to its price, hovered around 1.049 percent, the yield on the long-term 30-year bond traded flat at 1.654 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year also remained steady at 0.752 percent by 05:10GMT.

Reciprocity came in terms of a return Valentine’s Day present with China’s announcement to halve tariffs on $75 billion of US goods from February 14, the same day that the US will halve the tariffs on $120 billion of Chinese imports, OCBC Treasury Research reported.

This gesture may help to illustrate China’s sincerity to meet its obligations under the Phase 1 trade deal. That said, China’s death toll from the coronavirus has risen to 636, whilst CNOOC has declared force majeure on some LNG contracts, suggesting that the coronavirus was beginning to impact business operations, the report added.

Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 index traded tad -0.49 percent lower at 6,949.50 by 05:15GMT.