US 10-year notes dip in Asia as equities hold firm

TOKYO: US 10-year Treasuries dipped in Asia on Wednesday as equities held firm, with bond investors sticking to the sidelines due to a lack of progress in deadlocked talks over raising the US government's borrowing limit.

Serious discussions about the borrowing limit looked to be delayed for several days after Republicans pushed back a House of Representatives vote on their plan originally expected for Wednesday.

The vote will now be delayed until Thursday at the earliest, meaning Congress will almost certainly be negotiating right up until the Aug. 2 deadline when the Treasury Department has said it will run out of borrowing room. Analysts say the government may have enough cash on hand to pay its bills until the middle of the month.

Worries over risks of a downgrade to the top-notch US credit rating, and uncertainty over whether the US Congress would raise the government's $14.3 trillion borrowing limit in time to avert a default, have dented Treasuries this week.

"My perception is that even though there is a large amount of cash on the sidelines, I don't know whether they necessarily want to buy 10-year Treasuries here, until we get some clarity," said a trader for a European brokerage house in Tokyo.

Trading volume was very light so far, and Treasuries were down a bit as equities were holding firm, the trader added.

Ten-year Treasury notes dipped around 5/32 in price to yield 2.973 percent , up around 2 basis points from late US trading on Tuesday. Ten-year note futures slipped 5.5/32 to 124-11.5/32.

S&P stock futures edged up around 0.1 percent and Asian shares were broadly higher, with MSCI's index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rising 0.3 percent.

The US Treasury is due to sell five-year notes later on Wednesday.

Copyright Reuters, 2011