CREDIT : Lack of News Leaves Bonds Unchanged

Bond prices finished virtually unchanged Friday in quiet, trendless trading.

The Treasury’s bellwether 30-year bond rose 1/16 point, or 62.5 cents for every $1,000 in face value.

Its yield, which moves inversely to its price and is often an indicator of interest rate trends, eased to 9.39% from 9.40% late Thursday.

Prices opened firmer as traders speculated that strong buying overnight in Japan might carry over to domestic trading.

“There were expectations of further Japanese buying, but when that did not result, the speculators who bought in anticipation sold,” said Jay Goldinger, an economist at Capital Insight in Beverly Hills. “And that was the end of the day.”

Trading was extremely light. “There’s nothing particular going on, no news to move the market,” said Robert Brusca, chief economist and senior vice president at Nikko Securities.

Analysts said investors are laying low until the release of fresh economic data next week. The government is scheduled to report Tuesday on its consumer price index and durable goods orders, both for July.

Funds Rate Dips

Prices of short-term government issues were unchanged; intermediate maturities ranged from 1/32 point lower to 1/8 point higher, and 20-year issues picked up 1/32 point, according to figures provided by Telerate Inc., a financial information service.

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

The Shearson Lehman daily Treasury bond index, which measures price movements on all outstanding Treasury issues with maturities of a year or longer, edged up 0.42 to 1,125.26.

Corporate bonds were fractionally higher. Moody’s investment grade corporate bond index, which measures price movements on 80 corporate bonds with maturities of five years or longer, was up 0.09 at 281.26.

Three-month Treasury bills rose 3 basis points to a discounted rate of 7.03% and a yield of 7.25%. Six-month bills were unchanged at a discounted rate of 7.52% to yield 7.91%, while one-year bills rose 1 basis point to 7.68% and a yield of 8.24%.

A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point. The yield is the annualized return on an investment in a Treasury bill. The discounted rate is the interest rate that the market uses to price bills.

The federal funds rate, which is the interest on overnight loans between banks, was quoted at 8.0625%, down from 8.1875% late Thursday.

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