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Australian government bonds slumped on the last trading day of this week following weakness in the U.S. Treasuries on speculation that the new Federal Reserve Chair will be hawkish.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to its price, rose 1 basis point to 2.461 percent, the yield on the long-term 30-year note also jumped 1 basis point to 2.970 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year traded nearly 1 basis point higher at 1.627 percent by 02:30 GMT.
Treasuries saw rangebound activity during a relatively quiet session light on data of great significance. With respect to data flow, markets received a +10k increase in initial jobless claims to 233k, followed later by an unchanged m/m reading from pending home sales for September (keeping the series at its lowest level since January 2015, though continuing to reflect better than average activity in the housing).
Overnight news flow saw more winnowing of Fed Chair candidates, highlighted by the elimination of NEC Director Gary Cohn, former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh and current Fed Chair Janet Yellen from consideration, tightening the race to a battle between Fed Governor Powell and John Taylor.
On the other hand, the U.S. Treasury yields inched higher in choppy trading, undermined by a soft auction of U.S. 7-year notes which saw demand at its weakest since August last year. The U.S. 7-year note was sold at 2.280 percent, higher than the expected yield at the bid deadline. The yield was the highest seen at an auction for this debt maturity since January, Reuters reported.
Markets now look ahead to a greater flow of data to finish off the week on Friday, highlighted by advance third-quarter GDP and University of Michigan consumer sentiment releases.
Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 index traded 0.14% lower at 5,902.5 by 02:30 GMT, while at 02:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly AUD Strength Index remained neutral at -63.01 (a reading above +75 indicates a bullish trend, while that below -75 a bearish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex
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