By Deborah Levine, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Treasury prices turned up Friday, pushing yields toward a weekly decline for at least a fifth week, in a reflection of investors’ interest in safety amid worries about Greece and U.S. growth.
Bonds came under pressure briefly after a U.S. report showed orders for durable goods in May increased more than expected.
Ten-year note yields 10_YEAR -0.69% , which move inversely to prices, fell 2 basis points to 2.89%. A basis point is 1/100th of a percentage point.
A week ago, benchmark 10-year notes yielded 2.94% after falling for the previous five weeks.
Yields on 2-year notes 2_YEAR -0.29% fell 1 basis point to 0.35%, after approaching a record low again earlier this week.
Yields on 2-year notes, which sat at 0.39% last Friday, are on pace for an 11th straight weekly decline — the longest string since at least 2006.
Thirty-year bond yields 30_YEAR +0.17% slipped 1 basis point to 4.16%. The longest-dated U.S. security’s yields are down from 4.20% last Friday.
“We see no merits in fighting the current yield drop,” said Peter Schaffrik, head of European rates strategy at RBC Capital Markets.
“Markets are fearing a sharp drop in growth and a sudden death of (at least one member of) the European Monetary Union,” he wrote in a note. “Too much trust has been lost in the past weeks, making markets wary.”
Treasurys held some of their gains late Thursday even after reports that inspectors with the International Monetary Fund and the European Union had approved Greece’s new five-year austerity plan. The catch: Greece’s parliament has to approve next week a package of budget-cutting austerity measures to earn the bailout, an outcome that’s far from guaranteed. See story on Greece, bailout.
Bonds also saw the best gains of the week earlier that day after a report showed U.S. jobless claims for last week rose more than economists had expected. Read more on jobless claims, Treasury bonds.
Bonds had slipped earlier Friday after the Commerce Department said that orders for goods made to last at least three years rose 1.9% in May, rebounding from a drop in April that was revised smaller. Read story on durable-goods orders and shipments for May.
The data are “not so far afield from expectations to be dramatic but most certainly skewed to the firmer side,” said David Ader, bond strategist at CRT Capital Group.
Still, the dollar EURUSD -0.51% rose against the euro and U.S. stocks fell, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index SPX -0.79% losing almost 1%. Read about dollar, euro.
