By Deborah Levine, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Treasury prices declined on Monday, pushing yields up, amid more confidence among investors that the sovereign debt problems in Europe won't be as big of a drag on global growth as previously feared.
That's reducing the appeal of the relative safety of U.S. bonds over stocks and other assets generally considered riskier.
Yields on 10-year notes (UST10Y 3.30, +0.07, +2.10%) rose 8 basis points to 3.31%. Bond yields move in the opposite direction as prices and a basis point is 0.01%.
Yields on 2-year debt (UST2YR 0.77, +0.03, +4.36%) rose 3 basis points to 0.77%.
"The general sentiment is that the global economic expansion remains intact and will continue despite the European debt crisis," said T.J. Marta, chief market strategist at Marta on the Markets. "Barring cataclysmic developments, the risk reward is for higher yields both in the short and long terms."
The U.S. has no economic data scheduled for the session. Later in the week comes the government's wholesale and consumer price indexes, data on housing starts and some regional factory surveys. Read about upcoming economic data.
The inflation reports in particular may cap the increase in yields as they are expected to show very minimal inflation risks, analysts said. Also, there are no bond auctions to put pressure on the market.
"At least we have no Treasury supply this week, an anticipated benign CPI report" and softer housing data, said strategists at CRT Capital Group.
