TOKYO: US Treasury prices were little changed in Asia on Tuesday after dipping the previous day on hopes that European leaders would make progress in plans to contain that region's debt crisis.
The yield on 10-year notes stood at 2.04 percent, compared to 2.03 percent in late US trade. On Monday, bond yields rose as investors took the view that Europe's leaders would detail more aggressive plans, winding back their safe-haven bids.
Italian bond yields fell sharply after the country unveiled deep austerity measures, bringing their spread over benchmark German Bunds to the narrowest in over a month.
But US yields slipped from their high after Standard & Poor's warned that it may carry out an unprecedented mass downgrade on the credit ratings of euro zone countries if EU leaders fail to reach an agreement on how to solve the region's debt crisis at a summit later this week.
Bond market losses were also curbed earlier by weaker-than-expected readings on US factory orders and the services industries.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday agreed on a series of reforms to confront the euro zone debt issue, which will be presented to European Union President Herman Van Rompuy on Wednesday.
Treasury yields could rise this week on encouraging news from Europe, although market players say uncertainty is huge ahead of the EU leaders summit on Friday.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.