Bonds weaker after quiet offshore trade

THE Australian bond market opened the week slightly lower after there was very little to drive bond markets in the offshore session on Friday night. At 0830 (AEST) today, the September 10-year bond futures contract was trading at 95.730 (implying a yield of 4.270 per cent), down from 95.770 (4.230 per cent). The September three-year bond futures contract was at 96.430 (3.570 per cent), level with its previous close. JP Morgan interest rate strategist Sally Auld said bond futures prices were a bit lower, but that this was not too significant. "There's not much out in the way of data in the next couple of days, so we'll look for direction from equities markets," she said. "Markets offshore remain pretty fluid and volatile." Markets will also be watching public appearances by key monetary figures this week. Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar. End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar. On Friday, RBA governor Glenn Stevens will appear before the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics. US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke will also give a speech to a central bank symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday night, Australian time. At last year's Jackson Hole meeting, Mr Bernanke announced the second round of economic stimulus by the Fed, a policy known as quantitative easing (QE). Ms Auld said the speech will be closely watched, but she is not expecting a third round of economic stimulus to be announced. "I think the risk is he will disappoint a little bit and says 'I haven't got anything for you that you don't already know' and I can't imagine that markets will like that too much," she said.