Flattening Holds, Rinban Plans Eyed

The flattening theme held into the Tokyo lunchbreak, with the major cash JGB benchmarks running little changed to 4bp richer, as some participants look for the BoJ to boost its planned JGB purchases in the latest quarterly purchase plan, which will be outlined after hours today.

• Outside of that, the usual domestic month-end data deluge had little tangible impact on the space.
• Futures unwound their early uptick, +15 at the break, hovering around late overnight levels after a brief showing above their post-Tokyo peak.
• Headline flow saw Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Matsuno allude to further fiscal support for households, as has been touted in the local press in recent days.
• Today’s BoJ Rinban operations saw a lower than usual offer/cover in the 5- to 10-Year bucket (1.13x), which may support the belly during early afternoon dealing. Note that 10-Year JGB yields continue to hover just below the top of the BoJ’s permitted trading band.