NEW YORK: US Treasuries prices rose on Monday as fighting in Iraq and Ukraine increased demand for safe-haven bonds, though solid US economic data limited gains.
Worries about Iraq were intensifying after insurgents seized a mainly ethnic Turkmen city in northwestern Iraq on Sunday after heavy fighting, solidifying their grip on the north after a lightning offensive that threatens to dismember Iraq.
Russian natural gas exporter Gazprom also reduced supplies to Ukraine on Monday after Kiev failed to meet a deadline to pay off its gas debts in a dispute that could disrupt supplies to the rest of Europe.
"There was a reasonable flight-to-quality bid overnight with the developments in Iraq and Gazprom, so global equities were under a fair amount of pressure and that gave a bid to longer- dated Treasuries," said Ian Lyngen, senior government bond trader at CRT Capital in Stamford, Connecticut.
"We've given some of that up in the wake of the industrial production numbers," Lyngen added.
US manufacturing output rose solidly in May as production increased across the board, bolstering expectations that economic growth will rebound strongly this quarter.
Benchmark 10-year notes were last up 2/32 in price to yield 2.60 percent, after earlier falling as low as 2.58 percent. Thirty-year bonds gained 10/32 in price to yield 3.40 percent, after earlier falling to 3.35 percent
A gauge of manufacturing in New York state also rose in June, advancing as a read on new orders climbed to its highest level in nearly four years, the New York Federal Reserve said in a report on Monday.
Confidence among US homebuilders rose for the first time this year as builders felt better about the prospects of selling new homes, an industry gauge showed on Monday.
Investors this week are focused on the Federal Reserve's monetary policy statement on Wednesday, when the US central bank is expected to announce it will continue paring its bond purchase program. The Fed is also expected to cut its growth projections.
"One of the key things that people will focus on is what they will do with their summary of economic projections," said Gennadiy Goldberg, an interest rate strategist at TD Securities in New York.
"They will downgrade their growth expectations, but they will shift their unemployment rate projections lower because the unemployment rate has gone down faster than expected, so that should be fairly positive," Goldberg said.
The Fed bought $2.70 billion in notes due in 2018 and 2019 on Monday as part of its ongoing purchases.
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