JGB yields plunge at close tracking U.S. peer following trade tariff threats; benchmark 10-year auction in focus

The Japanese government bond yields plunged at close Tuesday tracking a similar movement in the United States counterpart after a trade threat conquered markets as President Donald Trump said the White House will impose higher tariffs on Chinese goods.

Investors will now be eyeing the benchmark 10-year auction, scheduled to be held tomorrow for further direction in the debt market.

At close, the yield on the benchmark 10-year JGB note, which moves inversely to its price, slumped 5 basis points to -0.050 percent, the yield on the long-term 30-year suffered 2-1/2 basis points to 0.540 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year plunged 15-1/2 basis points to -0.154 percent.

The US-China trade drama continues, with US Trade Representative Lighthizer accusing China of backpedalling on commitments made during negotiations and plans to raise tariffs on Friday, whilst China’s Liu He will still lead a smaller delegation to visit Washington on Thursday-Friday, OCBC Treasury Research reported.

With global risk appetite still suppressed for now, Wall Street closed lower after paring losses while the 10-year UST bond yield edged lower to 2.49 percent, the report added.

According to a report from CNBC, "Traders are reacting to news overnight that Trump has decided to raise current tariffs of 10 percent on $200 billion of Chinese goods to 25 percent on Friday. In a Twitter post, he also threatened to impose an extra 25 percent levies on an additional $325 billion of Chinese goods “shortly”".

Meanwhile, the Nikkei 225 index closed 1.60 percent lower at 21,902.10, while at 06:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly JPY Strength Index remained highly bullish at 126.76 (a reading above +75 indicates a bullish trend, while that below -75 a bearish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex