Bond Report: Treasury yields take a breather from steep week-long bond selloff

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U.S. Treasury yields were mostly steady on Friday after signs of progress towards a U.S.-China trade deal pushed long-term government rates to multi-month highs this week.

What are Treasurys doing?

The 10-year Treasury note yield TMUBMUSD10Y, +1.92%   was virtually unchanged at 1.921%, after hitting a three-month high on Thursday, and is up nearly 20 basis points from last Friday’s closing level of 1.727%.

The 2-year note rate TMUBMUSD02Y, +1.03%   was up 0.7 basis point to 1.684%, while the 30-year bond TMUBMUSD30Y, +1.15%  as down a single basis point to 2.390%.

What’s driving Treasurys?

White House Advisor Peter Navarro said that U.S. had not agreed to roll back tariffs, following reports that there were disagreements within the Trump administration whether to remove existing import levies.

On Thursday, Chinese officials had said both sides had accepted that if a phase-1 trade deal came to pass, the U.S. and China would both reduce the tariffs simultaneously at the same proportional pace.

Investors will digest some U.S. economic data, with the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment survey for November due at 10 a.m. Eastern. S

Several Federal Reserve officials including San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly, New York Fed President John Williams and Fed Gov. Lael Brainard will speak through throughout the day, though most of their comments are not expected to pertain to monetary policy.

What did market participants’ say?

“Exuberance over trade triggered a rally in risky assets and a meaningful sell-off in bonds, with the 10-year Treasury yield at its highest level since the August lows. We expect bonds to ultimately trade in line with fundamentals and do not see clear catalysts for a sustained sell-off in the context of a slowdown in global growth,” wrote Adam Kurpiel, head of rates strategy at Société Générale.

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