MW: Treasurys rise on Greece, fiscal-cliff worries
By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Treasury prices rose Monday, as anxiety over Greece’s debt problems and the so-called U.S. fiscal cliff prompted investors to seek the safety of government debt.
U.S. stock futures pointed to opening losses for Wall Street after last week’s rally. Read: Greece, fiscal cliff weigh on stock futures.
Investors will be watching for developments at a meeting of euro-zone finance ministers, who will again try to agree on the releasing the next tranche of aid money for Greece.
And in the U.S., Congress is returning to work after the Thanksgiving break, renewing the focus on negotiations between the White House and Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill about how to avoid the fiscal cliff — a combination of automatic tax increases and across-the-board spending cuts that could tip the economy back into recession unless an alternative deal is reached.
Against this backdrop, yields on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes 10_YEAR -2.24% fell 3 basis points to 1.66% in morning trading.
Yields move inversely to Treasury prices, and a basis point is 1/100th of a percentage point.
Yields on 30-year bonds 30_YEAR -1.52% dropped 4 basis points to 2.79%, while those on 5-year bonds 5_YEAR -3.03% fell 2 basis points to 0.67%.
Treasury yields were little changed on Friday, an abbreviated trading session following the Thanksgiving holiday.
Polya Lesova is MarketWatch's New York deputy bureau chief. Follow her on Twitter @PolyaLesova.
