NEW YORK: US Treasuries prices were steady to higher on Tuesday as further losses on Wall Street stoked safehaven demand for low-risk government bonds, sending 30-year yields to their lowest level in 2-1/2 months.
Worries about China and falling oil prices persisted despite less pessimistic growth data on the world's second biggest economy that briefly caused some appetite for stocks and commodities and selling in Treasuries earlier this session.
The see-saw trading action has been frequent since the start of 2016 as jittery investors pile into US government debt whenever stock and oil prices fall.
"It feels like Groundhog Day with people seeing temporary relief but only to see people getting nervous again, starting selling stocks and oil and moving into Treasuries," said Mark Lindbloom, portfolio manager at Western Asset Management Co. in Pasadena, California.
Benchmark 10-year Treasuries notes were up 2/32 in price for a yield of 2.026 percent, down 1 basis point from late on Friday.
US financial markets were closed on Monday for the Martin Luther King holiday. The 10-year yield had risen to 2.087 percent earlier Tuesday from 1.986 percent on Friday, which was its lowest intraday level since Oct. 14, according to Reuters data.
The initial selling in Treasuries stemmed from official data that showed China grew 6.9 percent in 2015, which was its weakest rate in a quarter of a century.
The growth pace in the world's second biggest economy, however, was not as dismal as some had expected and that was enough to pause the dramatic sell-off in stock and commodities markets worldwide since the beginning of 2016.
An initial rise in US oil futures in the wake of the Chinese gross domestic product report had also pared demand for Treasuries, sending benchmark yields above the three-month lows set on Friday.
The early gains in oil and Wall Street stock prices faded in US trading, reviving safehaven demand for bonds. "Everyone is doom and gloom," Lindbloom said. US oil futures resumed their decline to their lowest levels since late 2003 on worries about oversupply and weak global demand.
They were last down about 4 percent to $28.35 a barrel.
Major US stock indexes slipped into negative territory after opening 1 percent higher. Losses in oil and stocks fed bids for the 30-year bonds whose yields fell to their lowest since early October at 2.79 percent, down 2 basis points on the day.
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