Australian bonds slump after U.S.-China trade tension disturbs investors once again; Sep labour report disappoints

The Australian government bonds slumped during Asian trading session Thursday after trade tensions between the United States and China spurred disturbance amongst the market investors amid disappointment from the country’s domestic labour market report for the month of September, released early today.

The yield on Australia’s benchmark 10-year note, which moves inversely to its price, jumped nearly 2-1/2 basis points to 1.077 percent, the yield on the long-term 30-year bond also surged nearly 2-1/2 basis points to 1.664 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year traded 2 basis points higher at 0.750 percent by 04:20GMT.

US President Donald Trump hinted he would not sign any trade deal until he meets with Chinese president Xi at the upcoming APEC forum in Chile, OCBC Treasury Research reported.

Brexit uncertainties continued to wax and wane amid comments by Merkel (negotiations are in the “final stretch”) whereas EU chief negotiator Bichel Barnier briefed EU leaders that agreement had yet to be reached and DUP leader Arlene Foster also dismissed as “nonsense” a report that her party was close to dropping its opposition to Boris Johnson’s latest proposals, the report added.

Lastly, the 14.7k rise in employment in September was the smallest in seven months, aside from the post-election correction in June. However, the 0.1ppt fall in the participation rate to 66.1 percent meant that it was enough to bring the unemployment rate back down to 5.2 percent, ANZ research reported.

Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 index traded tad -0.63 percent down at 6,666.50 by 04:30GMT.