Australian bonds tad higher amid coronavirus crisis; U.S. 3m10y yield curve inverts

The Australian bonds remained tad higher during Asian session of the last trading day of the week Friday, after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus crisis a “public health emergency of international concern”.

The United States’ 3m10y yield curve inverted for the first time since October last year, with China reporting the highest jump in infected and death cases intraday.

The yield on Australia’s benchmark 10-year note, which moves inversely to its price, edged tad 1/2 basis point down to 0.960 percent, the yield on the long-term 30-year bond suffered nearly 1-1/2 basis points to 1.558 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year lost 1 basis point to trade at 0.653 percent by 04:10GMT.

The broadly symbolic change in classification is to allow the global community to help countries with lesser means to combat the contagion. Zooming in on China, the WHO head said that the declaration is not a vote of no confidence in the country’s ability to control the outbreak, OCBC Treasury Research reported.

It comes at a time when the death toll continued to climb (to 213) and the confirmed cases in China jumping to 9692 from around 7700 the day before. News about the first human-to-human transmission case in the US also brought home the concern about the extent of the potential hit on the global economy, the report added.

Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 index traded tad -0.32 percent down at 6,955.50 by 04:15GMT.