Steeper, U.S. Yield Range Breaks Eyed

Participants seemingly chose to focus on the prospect of a U.S. fiscal deal, as opposed to when it may occur, even after apparent pushback from Senate majority leader McConnell re: a pre-election pact on Tuesday. This, coupled with some concession ahead of today's 20-Year Tsy supply, allowed some curve steepening in Asia-Pac hours, with 10- & 30-Year yields pushing through their respective recent highs. A clean, sustained break here would allow participants to focus on the June highs in both metrics. T-Notes are running on above average volume, last -0-06 at 138-16+.

• JGB futures were also lower, in line with the broader tone, last -15 ticks, with the acceleration in the move in Tsys and upticks in the offer to cover ratios in 1-5 Year BoJ Rinban ops eyed. Cash JGBS generally cheapened, with the long end lagging. There were signs of receiving in the longer end of the swap curve during Tokyo morning trade, although that faded in the afternoon.
• Long positioning on the back of the prospect of imminent RBA easing likely added to the pressure seen in the Aussie Bond space, as some of the weaker XM longs folded on the downtick that was driven by the U.S. Tsy market, with YM -0.5 and XM -5.0 as we type. There was little else to really note for the space today, outside of the all-time low in the 3-month BBSW fixing that we flagged earlier and yet another strong ACGB auction.