Asia-Pacific Market Recap: Aussie Bonds Higher, JP Bonds Flat After Aussie Empl

Market Updates | Written by CEP News | Aug 07 08 11:52 GMT |
(CEP News) - Following a weak assessment of the Japanese economy and stronger-than-expected results in Australian employment, Asia-Pacific fixed income markets are gaining and equities closed mixed with yields on Australian 10-year bonds down 7.2 bps to 5.98% and Japanese 10-year government bonds flat at 1.53%.

Seasonally adjusted labour force figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) indicate that employment in Australia increased by 10,900 to 10,721,500 in July 2008. Full-time employment increased by 53,700 to 7,718,400, with part-time employment rising by 42,800 to 3,003,100.

The unemployment rate for the nation remained steady at 4.3%. The male unemployment rate decreased by 0.1 percentage point to 3.9%, with the female unemployment rate increasing by 0.2 percentage points to 4.8%.

Following the release of its monthly economic assessment report, the Japanese government stressed that the economy was "weakening" for the first time since May 2001, the last time the country was in a recession. In its report, the Japanese government revised down its employment, export and production assessments. These revisions come one day after acknowledging that the strongest postwar economic expansion was over. "Exports are in a weak tone," the government said. "Industrial production is decreasing moderately."

Sydney's S&P ASX 200 closed up 14.20 points to 4983.3. The Japanese Nikkei closed down 129.90 points to 13124.99 and the Hang Seng closed up 154.45 points to 22104.2.

Yields on three-year Australian bonds were down 1.9 bps to 6.83 and the Australian 90-day March 09 contract was up 2.0 ticks to 93.19.

The Euroyen March 09 contract was up 3.5 ticks to 99.20.

The Australian dollar was up 0.24 cents to 0.9107 against the USD and up 0.09 cents to 0.9539 against the Canadian dollar.

Against the yen, the U.S. dollar was down 0.38 points to 109.42 and the Canadian dollar was down 0.22 points to 104.45.

The euro was up 0.60 cents to 1.5469 USD.

All data taken at 7:50 a.m. EDT.

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