Gold Prices Fall Amid Rate Jitters; Copper Steady as China Stimulus Eyed 
The South Korean bonds closed lower Monday, following weakness in the U.S. money market. Also, investors moved away from safe-haven buying on expectations that the Bank of Korea (BoK) will remain on hold at the first monetary policy meeting of this year as exports picked up on the back of global demand recovery.
The 10-year bond yield, which moves inversely to its price, closed 5 basis points higher at 2.13 percent, the yield on 20-year note rose 3 basis points to 2.18 percent and short-term 3-year bond yields up 3 basis points to 1.66 percent.
The Korean bonds have been closely following developments in the U.S. debt market. The benchmark 10-year bond witnessed a heavy sell-off, pushing yields by 5 basis points to 2.42 percent on strong rebound in wages, pointing to sustained momentum in the country’s labor market. However, markets shrugged off lower-than-expected non-farm payrolls and rise in the rate of unemployment.
U.S. average hourly earnings rose 0.4 percent m/m, while non-farm payrolls came in at 156,000, lower than market expectations of 178,000. Further, the rate of unemployment December slightly rose to 4.7 percent, from 4.6 percent in November.
Further, the BoK is widely expected to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1.25 percent at the January 13 monetary policy meeting. Also, markets are expecting that the central bank will reduce the number of monetary policy meetings to 8 from previous 12 in 2017.
In addition, the central bank has been seen avoiding the economic growth slowdown in the last quarter of 2016 amid ongoing political unrest in the country as the country’s exports rebounded following recovery in global consumption.
Meanwhile, The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed 0.02 percent down at 2,048.78 points.
