Aust bonds firmer after weak US jobs data October 23, 2013 - 9:09AM Australian bond futures prices have followed US bonds higher after a report showed that US employment growth was sluggish in September. The US economy added 148,000 jobs in September, well below the gain of 180,000 the market was expecting. National Australia Bank global co-head of foreign exchange strategy Ray Attrill said the disappointing jobs report reduced the likelihood the US Federal Reserve would wind down its economic stimulus program this year. "The September payrolls report under-whelmed already subdued market expectations," he said. The upshot of which is that expectations for a first Fed taper not occurring before March next year have been further enhanced. We have seen the predictable bounce in US equities, fall in bond yields (prices rising), with 10-year Treasury bonds dropping to a new recent low of 2.51 per cent. At 0830 AEDT on Wednesday, the December 10-year bond futures contract was trading at 96.010 (implying a yield of 3.990 per cent), up from 95.925 (4.075 per cent) on Tuesday. The December three-year bond futures contract was at 96.970 (3.030 per cent), up from 96.880 (3.120 per cent). On Wednesday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics will release inflation figures for the September quarter, which are expected to come in below the Reserve Bank of Australia's two to three per cent medium-term target range. Economists are forecasting headline consumer price index (CPI) to have risen 0.8 per cent in the quarter and by 1.8 per cent in the year to September.