US yields rise as stock market rebounds

NEW YORK: US Treasury yields rose on Wednesday as a rebound in Wall Street stock prices pared some safe-haven demand for US government bonds even though investors remain worried about slowing economic growth and the US-China trade tensions.

Analysts expect the $15.6 trillion market sector to be stuck in a trading range given the dearth of official economic reports due to the longest-ever US government shutdown.

"The market is shadow-boxing with speculation about trade," said Ward McCarthy, chief financial economist at Jefferies & Co. in New York.

One of the hurdles to Washington and Beijing resolving their trade spat is the case of Meng Wanzhou, executive of Chinese technology giant Huawei, who was arrested on Dec. 1 in Vancouver for violating US sanctions on Iran.

The United States will proceed with the formal extradition of Wanzhou, while Beijing vowed to respond to Washington's actions.

The Trump administration and the Chinese government are still far apart on key issues for a deal to be struck ahead of a visit by Chinese Vice Premier Liu He to Washington at the end of January.

Early on Wednesday, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told CNN television he believed China and the United States could reach a trade agreement by a March 1 deadline.

Amid uncertainties about the progress on trade talks between the world's two biggest economies, traders focused on upbeat earnings from corporate stalwarts IBM, United Technologies and Proctor & Gamble.

At 10:49 a.m. (1549 GMT), the yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes was 2.753 percent, down 2.1 basis points from late on Tuesday. It reached a three-week peak at 2.799 percent last Friday.

The S&P 500 index was up 0.38 percent, while the Dow was up 0.52 percent and the Nasdaq was 0.52 percent higher. The Dow and S&P 500 fell more than 1 percent and the Nasdaq lost nearly 2 percent on Tuesday.