Australian bond futures have opened firmer after a record breaking US note auction overnight.

During the offshore session, the US Treasury sold $US21 billion ($A20.42 billion) of 10-year notes at a record yield of 1.9 per cent.

Market watchers said the impressive result showed US bonds were still considered a safe-haven investment, amid uncertainty surrounding Europe’s debt crisis.

UBS interest rate strategist Matthew Johnson said local bond futures had rallied early on Thursday on the successful US auction.

“It’s not a surprise that we’ve opened up well-bid as we’ve had quite a bit of catching up to do, having uderperformed overnight,” he said.

“It looks like to me that momentum is probably with the bias side and towards higher prices (in the medium-term future).”

At 0830 AEDT on Thursday, the March 10-year bond futures contract was trading at 96.180 (implying a yield of 3.820 per cent), up from 96.160 (3.840 per cent) on Wednesday.

The March three-year bond futures contract was at 96.860 (3.140 per cent), up from 96.820 (3.180 per cent).

With no major Australian economic data due on Thursday, traders are focusing on Chinese consumer price index (CPI) data, due in the afternoon session, Mr Johnson said.

The CPI is a key measure of inflation.

“People look at the CPI because they hope that inflation would be low enough that China will ease its (monetary) policy and that will be a catalyst for more stimulus policy which would drive global growth,” Mr Johnson said.

“I’m not so convinced that they will be easing aggressively at all.”