NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury yields dropped to multi-week lows on Tuesday, pressured by declines in the European government bond market as a political crisis in Italy, the third-largest euro zone economy, fueled a flight to safe-haven assets.
U.S. two-year and 10-year yields, which move inversely to prices, dropped to seven-week lows and slid for four straight sessions.
U.S. 30-year bond yields, on the other hand, sank to a nearly four month low.
The fall in yields came after Italy’s president appointed a former International Monetary Fund official as interim prime minister, who has to plan for fresh elections and pass a budget.
Investors believe the election will further underpin a mandate for anti-establishment, euro-skeptic politicians, stoking worries about Italy’s future in the euro zone.
The extent of the rally in U.S. Treasuries reflects investors’ perception of Italy’s political problems, said Robert Tipp, chief investment strategist at PGIM Fixed Income in Newark, New Jersey.
“This situation with Italy is serious and will take some time and there are a wide range of possible outcomes. Treasuries are one of the few safe places to go to,” Tipp said. “It depends on how bad things get in Italy. You can’t rule out 2.50 percent on the (U.S.) 10-year yield.”
Analysts believed though that the Italian situation is contained for now. The spreads of other peripheral government bond yields over German Bunds have increased, but not by a substantial level.
“This suggests that investors are for now fairly confident that the euro-zone as a whole will be able to withstand the current political uncertainty in Italy,” said Stephen Brown, European economist at Capital Economics in London.
The Italian crisis overshadowed Tuesday’s U.S. data on housing and consumer confidence which overall were positive for the economy.
In afternoon trading, U.S. 10-year yields dropped to seven-week lows of 2.759 percent US10YT=RR and were last at 2.788 percent.
U.S. 30-year yields fell to 2.954 percent, the lowest level since Feb. 1 and last traded at 2.98 percent US30YT=RR.
On the short-end of the curve, U.S. 2-year yields tumbled to seven-week troughs of 2.311 percent. They last changed hands at 2.331 percent US2YT=RR.
A rush to safe havens briefly pushed Germany’s 10-year bond yield to 0.19 percent DE10YT=RR, its lowest in more than a year.
Investors, however, sold Italian bonds, as short-term yields were on track for their biggest one-day jump since 1992 IT2YT=RR.
Tradeweb Markets LLC reported on Tuesday that average trading volume in Italian debt rose more than 60 percent in May compared with both the previous month and a year earlier, as market volatility rose around political news in Italy.
The rise in borrowing costs and potential knock-on effects on the euro bloc saw money markets further trim bets that the ECB will raise interest rates in June 2019.
May 29 Tuesday 3:16PM New York / 1916 GMT
Price
US T BONDS JUN8 UScv1 146-9/32 2-19/32
10YR TNotes JUN8 TYcv1 121-44/256 1-80/256
Price Current Net
Yield % Change
(bps)
Three-month bills US3MT=RR 1.855 1.889 -0.008
Six-month bills US6MT=RR 1.98 2.0272 -0.044
Two-year note US2YT=RR 100-86/256 2.3271 -0.157
Three-year note US3YT=RR 100-142/256 2.4294 -0.182
Five-year note US5YT=RR 100-192/256 2.5891 -0.178
Seven-year note US7YT=RR 101-6/256 2.7135 -0.174
10-year note US10YT=RR 100-224/256 2.7738 -0.161
30-year bond US30YT=RR 103-32/256 2.9668 -0.127
DOLLAR SWAP SPREADS
Last (bps) Net
Change
(bps)
U.S. 2-year dollar swap 24.25 4.00
spread
U.S. 3-year dollar swap 20.25 4.50
spread
U.S. 5-year dollar swap 11.50 1.00
spread
U.S. 10-year dollar swap 3.50 0.00
spread
U.S. 30-year dollar swap -11.25 -1.75
spread
Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Additional reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Susan Thomas
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