By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Treasury prices were little changed Monday as investors pondered better-than-expected retail-sales data from the U.S. and worries about the debt situation of the euro zone.
Yields on benchmark 10-year notes 10_YEAR +0.35% , which move inversely to prices, gained 1 basis point to 1.994%. They temporarily pushed above the 2% level earlier in the session.
A basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point.
Yields on 5-year notes 5_YEAR +0.47% added 1 basis point to 0.856%.
Thirty-year bond yields 30_YEAR +0.35% rose 1 basis point to 3.143%.
U.S. stock futures posted strong gains, buoyed by news that retail sales had risen 0.8% in March, suggesting the U.S. economy is growing at a robust pace. However, tempering some of the enthusiasm, a gauge of New York–area manufacturing indicated a substantial slowdown in activity in April.
In Europe, concerns continued to escalate over Spain, whose 10-year government bond yield ES:10YR_ESP +0.28% pushed above the 6% level. Spain is trying to dramatically reduce its government deficit but is facing a severe recession and a very high unemployment rate.
Polya Lesova is MarketWatch's New York deputy bureau chief.
