TREASURIES-Firm in Asia, await 30-year sale

TOKYO, Nov 12 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury debt prices edged up
in Asian trade on Thursday as the market readied for a return of
U.S. players following a one-day holiday and awaited an auction
of $16 billion in 30-year bonds.

* The 30-year sale is the last leg of a record-sized $81
billion three-part refunding and comes after a $25 billion
10-year note sale drew decent demand on Tuesday.

* A fund manager said smooth auctions of three- and 10-year
notes this week had led to a sense in the market that the 30-year
was also likely to go well.

* But an analyst cautioned the longer maturity could be more
difficult than the three-year, with investors possibly more
willing to put money in shorter-dated paper due to worries about
inflation longer term.

* The market has also taken note of China's central bank,
which said on Wednesday it would consider major currencies in
guiding the yuan, although few expect this to result in yuan
appreciation any time soon. [ID:nPEK347415]

* The 10-year note US10YT=RR was yielding 3.440 percent,
below the yield of 3.470 percent at Tuesday's sale.

* The 30-year bond US30YT=RR rose 21/32 in price to yield
4.375 percent, down almost 4 basis points from Tuesday, and below
a more than two-month high set last week at about 4.46 percent.

* At the short end the two-year note US2YT=RR rose 1.25/32
to yield 0.815 percent, down about 2 bps from Tuesday.

* Asian share markets fell on Thursday, lending some support
to lower-risk bonds, with Tokyo's Nikkei average .N225 down 0.7
percent and the MSCI index excluding Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS down
0.2 percent.

* Weekly U.S. jobless claims are due at 1330 GMT. Forecasts
are for a total of 510,000 new filings in the week ending Nov 7
compared with 512,000 in the previous week.
(Reporting by Charlotte Cooper; Editing by Michael Watson)