Australian bonds have begun the week...>

AUSSIE BONDS: Australian bonds have begun the week a little firmer with the

10-year future last up 3.5 ticks at 97.115, although today's session is set to

be relatively mundane.

- Looking to the rest of the week, the minutes from the latest RBA meeting will

be released on Tuesday, and we will also hear from the RBA's Asst. Gov. Bullock

on the same day, although her address comes at the Responsible Lending &

Borrowing Summit, so there may be little on the monetary policy front.

- Tuesday's RBA minutes are expected to be a bit of a non-event, so focus should

shift to Wednesday's wage data, although if the RBA's recent string of rhetoric

is anything to go by we shouldn't expect anything too surprising there either.

- In a recent note HSBC suggested that "the belly of the Australian sovereign

bond curve looks cheap on a range of barbells and on asset-swap". They note that

"the curve has bowed out lately as the impulse from higher global rates pushed

intermediate rates up while patient domestic monetary policy keeps the front-end

pinned down." As a result they recommend buying ACGB 04/27 against 3 & 15-Year

wings.