Bond yields generally lower

Yields on US Treasury notes were down on Monday ahead of comments from US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in front of the Economic Club of New York scheduled for Monday evening. Traders hoped that his remarks might shed some light on what the Fed will do about interest rates at its meeting next week.

By late morning in New York, two-year Treasury yields were down 0.4 basis points to a yield of 4.649 percent, while ten-year notes were yielding 4.646 percent, a loss of 3 basis points.

The US market helped out Eurozone bonds, as the two-year Schatz yielded 3.206 percent, down by 2.6 basis points and the 10-year Bund lost 1.4 basis points to yield 3.662 percent.

In the UK, meanwhile, yields fell ahead of Tuesday’s expected announcement of the Budget as well as worse than predicted data on public finance for February. Two-year gilts had dropped 0.6 basis points to 4.408 percent by late afternoon, while ten-year gilts were down by 0.2 basis points to 4.341 percent.

In Japan, the 10-year government bond closed at a 19-month high yield of 1.730 percent, a gain of 1.5 basis points.