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The Japanese government bonds closed higher on the last trading day of the week Friday, following dovish comments from Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) member Richard Clarida in his overnight speech.
Also, the United States’ lower-than-expected gross domestic product (GDP) for the first quarter of this year, weighed on market sentiments, thus boosting safe-haven debt prices.
Fed official Clarida said that the central bank would “assess the appropriate stance for monetary policy” if it sees mounting risks to the economy – a rare tilt away from the current rhetoric of preaching patience, OCBC Treasury Research reported.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year JGB note, which moves inversely to its price, slightly slipped to -0.095 percent, the yield on the long-term 30-year edged 1-1/2 basis points lower to 0.466 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year remained flat at -0.173 percent.
The comments sent the S&P 500 Index rising +0.2% last night and pushed UST yields down further. 10-year UST bond yield fell to 2.21%, the lowest since September 2017 and has officially tumbled by more than 1pp since touching a recent high of 3.23% in October 2018. The UST yield curve continues to invert and now stands at -15bp.
A second estimate of 1Q US GDP showed the economy growing by 3.1 percent, less than the preliminary estimate of 3.2 percent. Initial jobless claims were 215K, 3K more than the prior week.
Lastly, the White House continues with its dishing out of tariffs – this time a 5 percent tariff on Mexican goods effective June 10 (potentially rising to 25 percent by October 1) until the latter finds a solution to its immigrants continuously entering the US illegally, the report added.
Meanwhile, the Nikkei 225 index closed -1.22 percent lower at 21,000.45, while at 06:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly JPY Strength Index remained highly bullish at 171.27 (a reading above +75 indicates a bullish trend, while that below -75 a bearish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex
