By Deborah Levine, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Treasury prices rose on Thursday, pushing yields back toward record lows set earlier this month, as global stock markets dropped and worries about European banks increased.
Yields on 10-year notes 10_YEAR -3.97% , which move inversely to prices, fell 8 basis points to 2.09%. They touched 2.08% before the data, heading back to the record low of 2.03% set on Aug. 9. A basis point is 1/100th of a percentage point.
Yields on 2-year notes 2_YEAR -6.03% slipped 1 basis point to 0.18%, after falling within 1 basis point of the all-time low of 0.16%.
Thirty-year bond yields 30_YEAR -2.61% declined 9 basis points to 3.48%.
U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower opening, with futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJ1U -2.00% showing the index losing another 200 points. See more on U.S. stock futures.
“Lower domestic equities and a refocus on the weakening economic outlook supported the long-end of the Treasury market,” said strategists at CRT Capital Group.
Fears of a looming economic slowdown also supported bonds on Wednesday. Read more about bond market.
Bonds held onto gains after a pair of reports showed U.S. jobless claims increased to 408,000 in the latest week and consumer inflation rose 0.5% in July, both higher than economists expected. See more on jobless claims.
Still to come is a regional manufacturing report and data on existing home sales well as the Treasury Department’s announcement of how much in debt it will auction next week.
