TOKYO: US 10-year Treasuries edged higher on Friday, with no more supply ahead this week after the conclusion of the last of three US debt sales.
Thursday's sale of $13 billion of 30-year bond sale met lukewarm demand. Data from this week's $66 billion in longer-dated supply suggested no special buying interest from Japanese institutions and funds, who many expect to increase foreign bond-buying from now after the Bank of Japan said last week it will pump about $1.4 trillion into the economy in less than two years.
The Japanese government bond market has been extremely volatile since the announcement, as the central bank fine-tunes its purchasing operations and communications.
"It is hard to think about investing anywhere, in such market conditions," said a fixed-income fund manager at a European asset management firm in Tokyo.
Other market participants said that until the JGB market calms down and adjusts to a new regime in which the central bank makes purchases totaling about 70 percent of newly issued debt, it would hard for institutions to figure out any new allocation plans.
The yield on ten-year Treasuries slipped slightly to 1.792 percent, from 1.795 percent in late US trade on Thursday.
The yield on 30-year Treasuries edged down to 2.998 percent, from 3.001 percent on Thursday.
On the data front, the US government will release its report on retail sales later on Friday. The median forecast among economists polled by Reuters was for retail sales to show no change in March after a 1.1 percent jump in February, but a stronger-than-expected reading could prompt economists to hike their forecasts for first-quarter US growth.
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