Morning Bid: Auction bid steadies Japan bond slide

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A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Tom Westbrook

There was relief in the Japanese government bond market on Tuesday, where a 10-year auction went off quite well and helped to stabilise a sell-off that had ricocheted around the world.

A healthy bid-to-cover ratio of nearly 3.6 was the highest since September and the “tail” or gap to where the market had been trading before the sale was negligible, with the benchmark yield just below a 17-year high at 1.86%.

Global bonds had been hammered after Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda laid the groundwork for a hike in December by saying policymakers would be weighing the “pros and cons” of a move.

Rising yields in Japan bring the nagging worry that the world’s biggest creditor nation may temper its demand for foreign debt, so the solid auction result could also sound a warning that Japan’s investors are staying home.

Australian bonds stayed under pressure in the Asia session, though U.S. Treasuries steadied. Another source of nerves, in cryptocurrencies, also stabilised in the Asia session after another withering drop in the price of bitcoin.

Bitcoin hovered around $87,000 and is down 7% in a year where many expected it to soar thanks to a crypto-friendly administration taking office in the U.S. The market value of cryptocurrencies tracked by analytics firm CoinGecko has fallen nearly $1.4 trillion from a peak of $4.4 trillion in October.

Stocks were mostly steady save in South Korea, where a drop in U.S. tariffs lifted chipmakers.

Flash inflation data for the euro zone, due on Tuesday, is expected to show pretty sticky price rises, though it’s unlikely to shift the rates outlook much because markets expect the European Central Bank to stay on hold through 2026.

Key developments that could influence markets on Tuesday:

– Euro zone inflation

– CrowdStrike earnings (after market)

(By Tom Westbrook; Editing by Sonali Paul)