By Deborah Levine and Greg Morcroft, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. Treasury prices fell Tuesday, pushing yields up the most in about two weeks, after stronger-than-expected U.S. data on retail sales and wholesale inflation.
Yields on 10-year notes 10_YEAR +3.54% , which move inversely to prices, climbed 6 basis points to 1.73%. A basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point.
Thirty-year bond yields 30_YEAR +2.65% added 7 basis points to 2.82%.
Yields on 5-year notes 5_YEAR +4.76% increased 3 basis points to 0.74%.
Sales at U.S. retailers increased 0.8% last month — the first such increase seen in four months. See more on retail sales.
Separately, wholesale prices rose 0.3% in July. Analysts surveyed by MarketWatch expected an increase of 0.2%. Read about wholesale prices.
Yields are up from record lows set just a couple weeks ago, as markets priced in a pretty dire economic scenario, said William Bellamy, director of fixed income at Thompson Siegel & Walmsley.
“On the margin, we’re seeing things are better than expect and that worst-case scenario isn’t coming into play,” he said.
“There’s still a lot of uncertainty out there, so there’s a chance we could see yields move lower as we move into September” when many traders return from vacations, raising volume, and the presidential elections near.
Deborah Levine is a MarketWatch reporter, based in New York.
Greg Morcroft is MarketWatch's financial editor in New York.
