TOKYO: Ten-year Treasury notes rose on Monday as uncertainty remained over how euro zone leaders would respond to mounting funding difficulties for European banks, and as a US bipartisan committee looked to set to miss a deficit reduction deadline.
Ten-year Treasuries rose 6/32 in price to yield roughly 1.98 percent, down 3 basis points from 2.01 percent in late US trade on Friday.
"Slips in US stock index futures are supporting US Treasuries," said a trader at a Japanese bank.
Dow Jones and S&P 500 futures fell as the US congressional deficit-reduction committee was set to formally announce its three-month-long effort to bridge partisan differences over taxes and spending has failed, aides told Reuters.
Automatic spending cuts of $1.2 trillion over a decade are due to start in 2013, after elections in 2012, if the "super committee" of six Democrats and six Republicans cannot agree.
Despite signs that the US economy is gaining some traction, the ongoing debt crisis in Europe is raising fears of year-end funding pressures, which will support US note prices in the coming weeks.
"Given the rising possibility of a slowdown in the US and the euro zone amid the political mess there, I think upward room for US yields is limited," said the trader at a Japanese bank.
In Spain, the centre-right opposition People's Party won a crushing election victory and is expected to push through drastic austerity measures to try to prevent the country being sucked deeper into the debt storm threatening the euro zone.
In Italy, Prime Minister Mario Monti won an overwhelming vote of confidence on Friday after warning politicians against sabotaging a sweeping package of fiscal reforms.
But political wrangling in Greece, which has teetered on the brink of default and set off the panic selling now widespread in bonds of other highly-indebted euro zone members, threatened the new prime minister's bid to win vital bailout funds from European leaders.
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