Australian bond future prices have fallen to a six-week low following on from a strong week on equity markets.

JP Morgan interest rate strategist Sally Auld said bond future prices opened lower following on from last week’s positive sentiment.

“That makes sense given that equity markets did better on Friday,” she said.

In New York, the Dow Jones was up 96.5 points to 12,720.5 on Friday while the S&P 500 rose 0.88 per cent, to 1,315.38, to be up four per cent for the year-to-date.

She said the market was closely watching negotiations between Greece and its creditors as the debt-laden eurozone nation tries to avoid a default on its debt.

However, she said reports over the weekend of a disconnect between the two parties over the coupon rate Greece would pay to bondholders had not had a significant impact on the market.

She said she expected trading to be thin ahead of the release of Australian inflation data on Wednesday.

“With Chinese New Year, there are a lot of people out (on holidays) in the region this week and I don’t think we’ll see too much until we get the CPI (Consumer Price Index) number on our market on Wednesday.

“Markets are going to be down on what you’d normally expect and I don’t think people will do too much until they see that inflation number.”

At 0830 AEDT on Monday, the March 10-year bond futures contract was trading at 96.070 (implying a yield of 3.930 per cent), its lowest level since early December and down from 96.115 (3.885 per cent) on Friday.

The March three-year bond futures contract was at 96.740 (3.260 per cent), down from 96.770 (3.230 per cent).