Japanese securities sale could lead to meltdown

The waning Japanese government bond (JGB) market is facing a litmus test this month with a $16bn issuance set to gauge demand for the asset class. After a 14-year bull run yields have fallen so low fears are mounting that should the government have trouble unloading the five-year securities the market will face a further sell-off or even a meltdown. William Pesek, an analyst at Bloomberg's Tokyo office, said 10-year rates fell to 0.43% last month leading to a sell-off, which pushed the yield up to 1.07%. Compared with the US Treasury's rate of 3.64% on 10-year dated paper, investors ar...