CREDIT : Bond Prices Hold Steady as Investors Await Trade Data

Bond prices were unchanged to slightly lower Monday as investors awaited the government’s coming report on the nation’s June trade deficit.

The Treasury’s closely watched 30-year bond edged down 5/32 point, or about $1.25 for every $1,000 in face value. Its yield--often an indicator of interest rate trends--rose to 9.43% from 9.42% late Friday.

Volume was extremely light as investors in the credit markets looked toward the Commerce Department’s release of merchandise trade figures for June, due out early today.

“People just don’t want to do much ahead of the trade numbers,” said Nancy Vanden Houten, a money market economist at Merrill Lynch & Co.

Most investors expect that the deficit for June will total $10.5 billion to $12.5 billion. The trade deficit was $10.9 billion in May.

Analysts said investors showed little response to the latest report on production at the nation’s factories, mines and utilities. The Federal Reserve reported early Monday that industrial production rose 0.8% in July.

While the increase was the biggest in nine months, analysts said the report was mostly in line with expectations.

“It was in line, and they failed to revise the previous month’s figures, so everybody yawned and went back to their desks,” said Anthony Naylor, senior vice president of fixed-income securities at Rodman & Renshaw Inc.

In the secondary market for Treasury bonds, prices of short-term government issues were unchanged to 1/32 point lower, intermediate maturities also were unchanged to 1/32 point lower and 20-year issues were unchanged, according to Telerate Inc., a financial information service.

The movement of a point is equivalent to a change of $10 in the price of a $1,000 bond.

The Shearson Lehman daily Treasury bond index, which measures price movements on all outstanding Treasury issues with maturities of a year or longer, was down 0.21 at 1,124.40.

Corporate bonds also slipped. Moody’s investment grade corporate bond index, which measures price movements on 80 corporate bonds with maturities of five years or longer, edged down 0.05 to 280.23.

Three-month Treasury bills fell 7 basis points to a discounted rate of 6.97% and a yield of 7.18%. Six-month bills were unchanged at a discounted rate of 7.43% to yield 7.81%, and one-year bills were off 1 basis point at 7.65% and a yield of 8.21%. A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.

The federal funds rate, the interest on overnight loans between banks, was quoted at 8.375%, up from 8.125% late Friday.

Tables, Page 19