NEW YORK: US short- and medium-dated Treasury yields hit their lowest levels in at least 13 days on Monday on mounting European political uncertainty and a dearth of information on US President Donald Trump's promised pro-growth policies.
With Trump's promises to cut corporate taxes and boost infrastructure spending yet to be fleshed out, analysts said the risk was increasing that the plans would fade further into the background or that the initiative to enact them would weaken over time.
A growing concern is that Trump's tax and spending plans have taken a back seat to other issues such as his temporary immigration ban, spurring demand for safe-haven Treasuries, analysts say.
Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields touched 2.415 percent, their lowest level since Jan. 24. US two-, five-, and seven-year yields also fell to their lowest since that date to 1.169 percent, 1.860 percent, and 2.194 percent. US three-year yields touched 1.421 percent, their lowest in two weeks.
US 30-year Treasuries prices briefly rose by more than a full point as their yields touched a session low of 3.050 percent.
"It's just people taking a pause here in their anticipation of a quick economic success under Trump and trying to anticipate how much the volatility of the administration is going to hurt investment," said Lou Brien, a market strategist at DRW Trading in Chicago, in reference to the drop in Treasury yields.
A decline in German Bund yields on a cloudier political panorama in Europe helped stoke demand for US debt, said John Briggs, head of strategy for the Americas at NatWest Markets.
France's far-right party leader Marine Le Pen launched her bid for the presidency on Sunday with a vow to fight deregulated globalization and to take France out of the euro, leading French government bond yields to briefly hit their highest since September 2015 of 1.137 percent and 10-year Bund yields to hit a two-week low of 0.360 percent.
Treasury yields edged off their lows later in the morning session. Benchmark 10-year Treasuries were last up 14/32 in price to yield 2.439 percent, while two-year notes were last up 2/32 in price to yield 1.173 percent. US 30-year bonds last yielded 3.075 percent.
The US Treasury will sell $24 billion in three-year notes Tuesday, $23 billion in 10-year notes Wednesday, and $15 billion in 30-year bonds Thursday.
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