Yields on Korean Treasury bonds rose amid controversy over the possible dismissal of Jerome Powell, Chairman of the US Federal Reserve (Fed).
On July 17 in the Seoul bond market, the yield on the three-year Treasury bond closed at 2.479% per annum, up 2.0 basis points (1bp=0.01 percentage point) from the previous trading day. The yield on the ten-year bond rose by 2.8 basis points to 2.905% per annum, the five-year bond increased by 2.1 basis points to 2.663% per annum, and the two-year bond finished at 2.438% per annum, up 1.5 basis points.
The yield on the twenty-year bond climbed by 2.5 basis points to 2.881% per annum, while the thirty-year bond rose by 2.8 basis points to 2.783% per annum. The fifty-year bond closed at 2.681% per annum, up 2.9 basis points from the previous trading day.
It appears that the bond market reacted to the controversy surrounding President Donald Trump's potential dismissal of Chairman Powell. The previous day (local time), President Trump denied the likelihood of Powell voluntarily stepping down. During a meeting with the Prime Minister of Bahrain at the White House in Washington, DC, he stated, "I rule nothing out," but added, "However, unless Chairman Powell has to step down due to fraud related to the Federal Reserve building repairs, I think the possibility of dismissal is very low."
Foreign investors showed strong selling in the government bond futures market on this day. They had net sales of 8,379 contracts in three-year Treasury bond futures and 9,549 contracts in ten-year Treasury bond futures, respectively.
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