Futures Holding Firmer, Tight Ranges Ahead Of Payrolls, Monday Holiday

JGB futures remain in positive territory at 144.81, +14 compared to the settlement levels, after hitting a session high of 144.85 in morning trade.

• There hasn’t been much in the way of domestic drivers to flag, outside of the previously outlined labour and real cash earnings, which printed weaker than expected.
• US tsys are dealing with little change across major benchmarks in the Asia-Pac session so far. Ranges have been modest ahead of US Non-Farm Payrolls data later today. Bloomberg consensus expects +170k versus +187k prior. The unemployment rate is forecast to dip to 3.7% from 3.8% prior. (See MNI’s US NFP preview here)
• Cash JGBs are dealing mixed, with the belly of the curve outperforming. Yields are 2.1bps lower (7-year) to 1.2bps higher (40-year). The benchmark 10-year yield is 1.0bp lower at 0.802%, above BOJ's YCC soft limit of 0.50% but below its hard limit of 1.0%. It is also below the cycle high of 0.814% set yesterday.
• The swaps curve has bull-steepened out to the 7-year, with rates 0.4bps to 1.5bps lower. Beyond the 7-year, rates are 0.9bp to 1.4bps lower. Swap spreads are generally tighter across maturities.
• The JGB market is closed on Monday for the observance of Health-Sports Day.