Treasury yields edge lower

Treasury yields slipped on Monday in choppy trading, partly dragged down by a combination of a pullback on Wall Street after hitting record highs earlier, plus reports that North Korea may be preparing for another nuclear missile test. "Weakness in equities in general gave bonds a little bit of a bid," said Kim Rupert, managing director of global fixed income at Action Economics in San Francisco.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were down on the day, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average pulling back after earlier touching all-time peaks. Treasury prices, which move inversely to yields, rose as well after reports North Korea might be looking to conduct another missile test, Rupert said.
Japan's Kyodo news agency reported that a Japanese diplomat said there was a possibility of missile launches by North Korea over the next few days, as part of its army's winter training regime, according to traders. Reuters, however, was not able to verify the Kyodo report. Earlier, yields rose after data showed US new home sales surged to their highest in 10 years.
US 30-year bond yields rallied from a roughly 2-1/2 month low after the data's release. The housing data further boosted the outlook for US interest rate increases. The Federal Reserve has raised borrowing costs twice this year and is widely anticipated to boost rates again next month. It has forecast three rate hikes in 2018. Increased expectations for interest rate hikes have pushed the yield curve to its flattest in a decade.
The gap between US 2-year note and US 10-year note yields contracted to 56.30 basis points, the tightest since October 2007. The gap was last at 58.30 basis points. Also on Monday, the Treasury held two auctions - the $26-billion in two-year notes and $34 billion in five-year debt. Both notes were poorly received by investors. The two-year offering showed higher yields of 1.765 percent versus 1.763 percent expected at the bid deadline. Monday's yield was the highest since September 2008.
Treasury's five-year auction yield was 2.066 percent, slightly higher than the expected yield at the bid deadline which was 2.064 percent. In late trading, the 10-year Treasury yield was down slightly at 2.333 percent, from 2.34 percent late on Friday. US two-year yields were slightly off at 1.744 percent, from 1.748 percent on Friday.
US 30-year bond yields rose to 2.770 percent, from Friday's 2.761 percent. Earlier in the session, 30-year yields touched 2.738 percent, the lowest since mid-November.