Australian bond futures prices are higher and continue to trade within a tight range ahead of key local economic data.

Bond prices rallied on the back of Friday’s disappointing US employment figures which showed the US added 192,000 jobs in March, just below expectations of 200,000 jobs.

ANZ head of interest rate research Tony Morriss said bonds were trading within a tight range as the market waits for official local job growth figures, due on Thursday.

“Market forecasts say labour force numbers will be weaker after gains last month but you’ll need to see very surprising weakness in the data to see bonds rally too far,” he said.

“The leading indicators and underlying momentum in the economy is still strong.”

He said a key measure of business confidence in Australia, the NAB business survey due out on Tuesday, was also expected to show reasonable momentum.

At 1630 AEST on Monday, the June 2014 10-year bond futures contract was trading at 95.900 (implying a yield of 4.100 per cent), up from 95.830 (4.170 per cent) on Friday.

The June 2014 three-year bond futures contract was at 96.960 (3.040 per cent), up from 96.900 (3.100 per cent).