JGB yields fall ahead of Powell's speech, U.S. data

Japanese government bond (JGB) yields fell on Wednesday as investors awaited Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's speech and a slew of U.S. economic data for policy clues.

The 20-year JGB yield (JP20YTN=JBTC) fell 0.5 basis point to 1.125% and the 30-year JGB yield (JP30YTN=JBTC) fell 2 basis points to 1.500%.

"There are no market-moving cues locally and all eyes are on the (Powell) event later in the day," said Takayuki Miyajima, a senior economist at Sony Financial Group. "Yields are moving in a small range."

The 40-year JGB yield (JP40YTN=JBTC) fell 0.5 basis point to 1.755%.

Powell is scheduled to speak about the economy and labour market at a Brookings Institution event later in the day. A series of U.S. data concerning manufacturing, inflation and jobs will also be released this week.

The 10-year JGB yield (JP10YTN=JBTC) was flat at 0.250%. The two-year JGB yield (JP2YTN=JBTC) and the five-year yield (JP5YTN=JBTC) were also flat at -0.030% and 0.110%, respectively.

Benchmark 10-year JGB futures (2JGBv1) fell 8 yen to 148.7, with a trading volume of 11,087 lots.