(Bloomberg) -- Australian sovereign bond yields dropped to the lowest in more than a week after the Bank of England joined a global push back against traders betting on aggressive rate hikes by holding interest rates unchanged.
Australia’s 10-year yield fell as much as 8 basis points to 1.76%, the lowest since Oct. 26 and are on track for their biggest weekly decline in nine years. Yields on the three-year note tumbled as much as 10 basis points to 0.87%.
The BOE’s push back against rate hike expectations bolsters a global trend this week that started with the RBA, when Governor Philip Lowe on Tuesday signaled that markets were far too aggressive in pricing for hikes next year.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell emphasized a need for patience on inflation on Wednesday when he announced tapering bond purchases.
“The Fed and BOE comments over the past 24 hours were nowhere near as dovish as those delivered by Lowe on Tuesday, but the RBA Governor’s position is no longer seen as being quite so detached from market reality,” Sean Keane, managing director of Triple T Consulting Ltd., wrote in a note. “The Bank of England decision on Thursday clearly surprised the market and caused a large rush to clear positions through another narrow exit.”
The RBA is due to deliver its quarterly statement on monetary policy later on Friday.
While pushing back on rate hikes on Tuesday, it did bow to market pressure by abandoning its yield curve control policy. A resurgence in inflation caught officials flat-footed and yields on the April 2024 bond shot up to eight times the target rate without the bank taking action.
(Adds chart and updates yields in second paragraph.)
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