Australian bonds remain range-bound in muted trading session; RBA’s Lowe, Kent speeches eyed

Australian government bonds traded range bound during Asian session Friday amid a muted trading session that witnessed data of little economic significance ahead of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s Phillip Lowe and Christopher Kent speeches scheduled next week.

The yield on Australia’s benchmark 10-year note, which moves inversely to its price, traded flat at 1.347 percent, the yield on the long-term 30-year bond also remained steady at 1.995 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year rose over 2 basis points to 0.952 percent by 04:20GMT.

Risk sentiment improved overnight, after NY Fed President John Williams said that the Fed should act promptly if the US economy should stumble. Equities inched higher while the 3m-10y UST curve flipped back into carry at 0.38bp, after having spent 40 consecutive sessions in inversion territory, OCBC Treasury Research reported.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer also denied that Huawei was a sticking point in US-China talks and are scheduled to have a call with Chinese trade counterparts on Thursday night (US time), the report added.

Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 index remained tad higher at 6,634.50 by 04:25GMT.