By Deborah Levine, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Treasury prices remained higher on Tuesday, pushing yields down, after a government report showed U.S. housing starts fell 5% in June to a 549,000 annualized pace.
The data added to growing evidence that faltering conditions in the housing market will continue to weigh on the U.S. economy. See full story on housing starts and building permits for June.
Yields on 10-year notes (UST10Y 2.94, -0.02, -0.74%) fell 3 basis points to 2.93%. Earlier, the benchmark's yield fell as low as 2.91%, whisper-close to a 15-month low.
Bond prices move inversely to their yields. A basis point is 0.01%.
Meanwhile, yields on 2-year notes (UST2YR 0.59, -.00, -0.68%) had touched a new record low -- 0.57%. They recently traded down 1 basis point to 0.58%.
Bond traders are also eyeing the U.S. corporate earnings parade while awaiting Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's congressional testimony starting Wednesday and results on Friday of European Union-administered bank "stress tests."
"Outside of the U.S. tug-of-war between stocks and bonds, we believe the focus is on Bernanke and the E.U. stress tests," said George Goncalves, a strategist at Nomura Securities. "We view both of those events as bond-market friendly."
