(Bloomberg News) Treasuries snapped a loss from yesterday after Pacific Investment Management Co.'s Bill Gross said the Federal Reserve will add to monetary stimulus even if Chairman Ben S. Bernanke doesn't say so in a speech tomorrow.
Bernanke is scheduled to speak as central bank policy makers debate whether to add to their bond purchases under the program of so-called quantitative easing, or QE, to support expansion. Growth is slowing in the U.S., while Europe's economy is contracting. The U.S. is scheduled to sell seven-year debt today, the last of three note sales this week totaling $99 billion.
"Everybody is expecting some kind of QE," said Kim Youngsung, the head of fixed income in Seoul at Samsung Asset Management Co., South Korea's largest private bond investor with the equivalent of $99.6 billion in assets. "Yields will go down."
Benchmark 10-year rates were little changed at 1.65 percent as of 10:01 a.m. in Tokyo, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader data. The price of the 1.625 percent security due in August 2022 was 99 25/32. The rate compares with the record low of 1.38 percent set July 25 and the average of 3.73 percent for the past decade.
Japan's 10-year yield increased 1/2 basis point to 0.80 percent, rising for the first time in three days. A basis points is 0.01 percentage point.
The Fed will announce more quantitative easing "relatively soon," Gross, who runs the world's biggest bond fund, said yesterday on Bloomberg Television's "Street Smart" with Trish Regan.
Many policy makers said additional stimulus probably will be needed soon unless the economy shows signs of a durable pickup, according to minutes released Aug. 22 of the central bank's most recent meeting, on July 31-Aug. 1.
Bernanke will address the Kansas City Fed's economic-policy conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.