US Treasuries weakened on the back of positive economic data releases, coupled with Fed

Market Roundup

• US Treasuries weakened on the back of positive economic data releases, coupled with Fed chief Janet Yellen signaling a rate hike. She stated that policymakers are able to raise rate “relatively soon”, citing that the “economy is making very good progress towards the goals”. The 30T yield revisited 3.00% level on Thursday, after taking a dip to the low of 2.91% in the past two trading days.
• Fed chief Janet Yellen’s “relatively soon” rate hike remark sent the DXY index higher to 100.89 on Thursday, from 100.41 registered during mid-week. USD/JPY resumed its uptrend and hovered above 110.00, after consolidating within a lower range of 108.50-109.50. Aside, EUR/USD slipped to 1.0730, and traded around 1.0600 this morning.
• Ringgit denominated govvies posted heavy losses as sentiment turned weaker on Thursday, along with USD/MYR which continued to anchor at higher ranges near 4.3900 late Thursday. IRS rates rose by 4-11bps across the curve. Notably, there were some readjustments in the GG space. Danainfra Apr’29 closed 13bps tighter at 4.63%.
• Thai govvies pared losses, supported by buying-on-dips in conjunction with mild recovery in US Treasuries. However, flows were thinner at Bt9.4 billion, in contrast to Bt17.4 billion registered a day prior. We continue to see near term consolidation amid a lack of fresh catalyst. Foreign players remained net sellers, offloading Bt10.8 billion worth of Thai bonds on Thursday.
• IDR bond market was generally quiet for most of the time on Thursday. However, sellers appeared on 5-year FR53, while some buying action were seen in 10-year FR59. As expected BI kept the 7-days reverse repo rate unchanged at 4.75%. Market volume was stable amounting IDR20 trillion and was dominated by bonds maturing in 1 to 5 years (42%).