(Bloomberg) -- Japan's 20-year government bond yield dropped past zero for the first time as ultra-low yields worldwide failed to deter investors from rushing to buy the safest assets.
U.S. Treasuries advanced for a fourth day as 10- and 30-year year yields renewed record lows, with the fallout from the shock U.K. vote to leave the European Union clouding the outlook for global growth. Benchmark 10-year Japanese and Australian sovereign note yields also slid to unprecedented levels. Almost $10 trillion of securities in the Bloomberg Global Developed Sovereign Bond Index yield less than zero, up from about $9 trillion a week ago.
The 20-year Japanese bond yield fell to minus 0.005 percent and yielded 0.005 percent as of 1:46 p.m. in Tokyo, falling 2 1/2 basis points from Tuesday, according to Japan Bond Trading Co. The 10-year note yielded a record minus 0.285 percent, while the 30-year yield reached an unprecedented 0.015 percent.
“In the risk-off environment produced by international events, there is a global rush to buy super-long sovereign debt, and bonds that still offer some yield are going to be most in demand,” said Hideo Suzuki, the chief manager of foreign exchange and financial products trading at Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp. in Tokyo.
The 30-year U.S. Treasury bond yield fell three basis points to 2.13 percent, after touching a record low of 2.1274 percent. The yield on the 10-year security slipped three basis points to 1.3432 percent, after declining to 1.3415 percent for the first time.
Australia's 10-year yield was 10 basis points lower at 1.85 percent, after earlier reaching an unprecedented 1.84 percent.
The average yield on securities in the Bloomberg Global Developed Sovereign Bond Index reached a record-low 0.4 percent.
--With assistance from Daisuke Sakai To contact the reporter on this story: Kevin Buckland in Tokyo at kbuckland1@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Naoto Hosoda at nhosoda@bloomberg.net, Jonathan Annells
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