By Deborah Levine, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Treasury prices fell further on Tuesday, pushing yields up to the highest level in almost two weeks, after a report showed retail sales fell 0.2% in May, but gained 0.3% when auto sales are excluded.
Yields on 10-year notes 10_YEAR +2.74% , which move inversely to prices, rose 8 basis points on the day to 3.07%, and from about 3.02% before the U.S. data. A basis point is 1/100th of a percent.
Benchmark 10-year yields recently touched the lowest since December, under 3%.
Yields on 2-year notes 2_YEAR +8.89% added 4 basis points to 0.44%.
Thirty-year bond yields 30_YEAR +1.62% increased 6 basis points to 4.27%.
The data confirmed consumer spending is softer, which isn’t exactly new insight, said David Ader, head of government bond strategy CRT Capital Group.
“The data in itself wouldn’t warrant much of a sale, especially versus revisions, but the fact the market’s backed up does suggest much of the ‘good’ news is priced in,” he said.
A separate report showed produce prices rose 0.2% last month.
Analysts also noted technical levels that benchmark securities have been trading around. Anything that breaks those support levels could be prompting a sell-off that looks out-sized for the data.
Bond prices were under slight pressure before the U.S. data as strong data out of China boosted investors appetite for riskier assets like stocks.
“Treasuries are slightly weaker as global stock markets rally on news that China’s May production data held up better than expected,” said strategists at RBS Securities.
