TOKYO: US 10-year Treasuries inched up in Asia on Thursday, but were in for a subdued post-holiday session as markets awaited the outcome of the European Central Bank policy meeting and the all-important US jobs figures due later in the week.
Ten-year Treasuries rose 9/32 in price to yield 1.5952 percent. US markets were closed on Wednesday for the Independence Day holiday.
The 10-year Treasury yield has been languishing in a range of 1.56 percent to 1.73 percent for around a month and some analysts think that as markets fret over the health of the global economy, the yield may head back south if inflation expectations were to decline.
The US jobs data on Friday may become the catalyst for such a move if it undershoots the forecasts, fuelling concerns about the prospects of the world's No. 1 economy. It is seen to have created 90,000 jobs in June, up from 69,000 in May.
At any rate, the 10-year yield looks unlikely to move back above the 2.0 percent mark any time soon, given mounting concerns over the ongoing European debt crisis, far from over despite some headway made at a summit last week.
Against this backdrop, the focus shifts to the ECB's meeting later in the day.
The bank is expected to cut its main interest rate by 25 basis points to 0.75 percent, while money market traders are evenly split on whether the central bank will cut the deposit rate, a separate survey showed.
Treasury Department announces sales of 3- and 6-month bills, 3- and 10-year notes, and 30-year bonds at 1500 GMT.
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