NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Treasury prices rose Friday, pushing yields back toward significant lows, after a trio of reports on U.S. retail sales, inflation and consumer confidence added to evidence that economic growth is slowing. Long-term Treasury yields have fallen since last Friday, while 2-year yields touched an all-time low during the week, as data and comments from the Federal Reserve about the economy fueled a renewed interest in the relative safety of U.S. government debt. Bond yields move in the opposite direction as prices. Yields on 10-year notes (UST10Y 2.70, -0.05, -1.71%) fell 5 basis points, or 0.05%, to 2.70%, near the lowest point since April 2009. That's down from 2.82% a week ago, on pace to fall for a third week. Two-year yields (UST2YR 0.53, -0.02, -2.92%) declined 3 basis points to 0.52%, after having touched a record low set earlier this week. Yields on 2-year notes are up slightly from 0.51% last week, after falling for the past four weeks. Yields on 30-year bonds (UST30Y 3.89, -0.06, -1.39%) , most sensitive to inflation expectations, fell 6 basis points to 3.89%. Thirty-year yields were at 3.92% a week ago. The Commerce Department said retail sales increased 0.4% in July, a little less than economists expected. Excluding autos, sales rose 0.2% last month. Read about retail sales. The details of the report give "a sense that the loss of momentum in the second quarter has carried forth to early in the fourth quarter," said strategists at CRT Capital Group. Separately, the Labor Department said the consumer price index rose 0.3% last month. Excluding food and energy, retail-level inflation rose 0.1%. Core consumer prices rose 0.9% over the past year, also relieving worries about rapid inflation, which erodes the value of fixed-income bond payments. See more on CPI. Bonds "will continue to focus on the anemic growth story as well as deflationary forces that will be prevalent for some time," said Tom di Galoma, head of U.S. rates trading at Guggenheim Partners. U.S. debt held onto gains after Reuters/University of Michigan's poll on consumer confidence improved to 69.6 in August from 67.8 in July, but still remained well below readings this year through June. Read about consumer confidence. Treasury prices had moved higher before the U.S. data came out, amid lingering concerns about prospects for some European countries, in spite of positive data on economic growth reported by Germany and France. See more on Europe's GDP. "Better growth data out of Europe is providing little lift to risk assets this morning, as periphery concerns continue to bubble under the surface," said strategists at RBS Securities. On Thursday, 10-year yields rose for the first day in six as the market tried to find the bottom of a new range after the Federal Reserve said it would again be buying Treasury debt. Read Thursday's Bond Report. "The price action Thursday gave us some hints that we've reached a level so to speak from which the market can settle into a range," CRT strategists said. Support for the range is around 2.84%, they said. Also lending support to bonds, the Fed's purchases of Treasury debt, with proceeds from maturing mortgage-related assets, will begin on Tuesday. It will buy an undetermined amount of debt maturing between August 2014 and July 2016, the New York Fed said Wednesday. See Fed's buyback schedule. Treasurys of all maturities have returned 0.74% this month, according to an index compiled by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. For the year, they've gained 7.39%. Corporate bonds are also up 0.74% this week, contributing to 9.07% returns in 2010. B. of A.'s index of high-yield bonds has slipped 0.06% this week, but is still up 8.3% this year.

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