US bond yields rise ahead of supply from Treasury refunding

08 May, 2017

Macron's win on Sunday revived appetite for stocks, propelling the S&P 500 and Nasdaq briefly to record highs. It also reduced safe-haven demand for bonds as some traders had feared a possible upset by his anti-European Union rival Marine Le Pen.

With the closely watched French election in the rear view mirror, traders will focus on this week's domestic data and demand at the quarterly refunding, analysts said.

"It has to do with supply later this week. It's setting for the auctions," said Subadra Rajappa, head of US rates strategy at SG

The week's key reports will be those on producer and consumer prices as well as retail sales, analysts said.

The Treasury Department on Tuesday will kick off its refunding with a $24 billion sale of three-year notes, and it will repay $49.7 billion to investors on maturing bonds .

It will sell $23 billion in 10-year Treasuries on Wednesday and $15 billion in 30-year bonds on Thursday.

The benchmark 10-year note yield was up 2 basis points at 2.374 percent after touching 2.390 percent earlier Monday which was the highest since April 10.

The yield on 30-year bonds was 2 basis points higher at 3.011 percent, while the two-year yield was up 1 basis point at 1.330 percent.

Demand for this week's Treasury supply will be based partly on investors' perception of further rate increases from the Federal Reserve, analysts said.

Interest rate futures implied traders saw an 83 percent chance the central bank would raise rates by a quarter point to 1.00-1.25 percent at its June 13-14 policy meeting, up from 79 percent late on Friday, CME Group's FedWatch program showed.

Earlier on Monday, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said strong bond demand and sluggish workforce growth would keep a lid on rates for the foreseeable future, which would allow the Fed to keep rates at current levels.

At a separate event, Cleveland Fed chief Loretta Mester said further rate increases are warranted as the economy has reached the Fed's employment goal and is closing in on its 2 percent inflation target.

 

Copyright Reuters, 2017
 

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