Tight Ranges, Back From Block Buy-Inspired Bests

Cash Tsys saw a light extension of Thursday’s bull steepening theme during Asia-Pac hours, with the major benchmarks last 0.5-1.5bp richer. TYM3 is +0-04 at 120-25 into London hours, just off the top of a tight 0-04 range, on modest volume of ~49K.

• A round of activity surrounding a block buy of TU futures (+6.4K) provided the highlight of the session and promoted the early bull steepening.
• The space looked through a story from Japan’s Kyodo News, which suggested that countries are considering a near-total ban on exports to Russia. A reminder that BBG ran a similar story on Thursday.
• There was no impact from the latest round of firmer than expected core CPI data out of Japan, as it isn’t seen as much of a needle mover when it comes to next week’s BoJ monetary policy meeting.
• The weekly update from the Fed saw a modest uptick in both discount window and BTFP usage, while FIMA usage nudged lower.
• Fedspeak from Harker & Bostic stuck to the respective, well-documented views.
• Preliminary PMI data from across the globe headlines Friday. There will also be a range of ECB speakers and comments from Fed Governor Cook (with the Fed going into pre-meeting blackout this weekend).