REFILE-TREASURIES-Steady in Asia, await Fed, supply and GDP

Wed Apr 29, 2009 4:33am EDT

(Refiles to correct day of the week in the lead to Wednesday from Thursday)

TOKYO, April 29 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasuries held steady in Asia on Wednesday, keeping the benchmark yield above 3.0 percent after a surge in U.S. consumer confidence and concerns about increasing bond supply hit prices the previous day.

* Yield on benchmark 10-year note US10YT=RR at 3.02 percent, about the level it stood at just before the Federal Reserve said in March it would buy $300 billion in government debt to keep long-term rates down.

* 3.0 percent has been ceiling since then, but prospect of $26 billion auction of 7-year notes on Wednesday and details at 1300 GMT of next set of Treasury auctions helped push yields up.

* Analysts expect second-quarter refunding at between $70 billion and $75 billion, after a record $67 billion in the first quarter to help pay for various rescue programmes.

* Fed also concludes policy meeting; market looking for clues on whether it will expand Treasury purchase programme.

* U.S. first quarter GDP data is due at 1230 GMT with forecasts for an annualised decline of 4.9 percent compared with a 6.3 percent drop in the fourth quarter. [ID:nN27532632]

* 10-year note down 1/32 in price to yield 3.024 percent, up about 0.5 basis point from late U.S. levels.

* Resistance on yield sitting just overhead, with the 3.07 percent level representing 50 percent Fibonacci retracement of 10-year yield's fall from above 4.1 percent in October last year to just above 2.0 percent in December.

* Two-year note price US2YT=RR up 1/32 to yield 0.951 percent, down nearly 2 basis points from U.S. trade.

* Spread between yields on the 10-year and two-year notes holding at its highest level in five months at 207 basis points. (Reporting by Charlotte Cooper; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

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