By Wes Goodman Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Treasuries rose, pushing yields toward a one-month low, before government reports today that economists said will show housing starts declined and wholesale costs were unchanged in December. Republican Scott Brown won a U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts and vowed to stop health-care legislation in Congress, easing concern that the cost of the proposal would lead to bigger debt sales as the government finances its record budget deficit. “The pace of growth will slow and inflation will remain subdued,” said Tsutomu Komiya, who handles U.S. government debt in Tokyo at Daiwa Asset Management Co., which has $77 billion in assets. “The Republican victory in Massachusetts may also derail health-care reform in the U.S., which will limit how fast the budget deficit grows. That’s all good for bonds.” The yield on the 10-year note fell two basis points to 3.68 percent as of 6:37 a.m. in London, according to BGCantor Market data. The 3.375 percent security due November 2019 climbed 5/32, or $1.56 per $1,000 face amount, to 97 17/32. Ten-year yields dropped to 3.64 percent yesterday, a level not seen since Dec. 21. Housing starts declined to an annualized 572,000 units from 574,000 in November, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg before the Commerce Department reports the figure. Producer prices, issued by the Labor Department, were unchanged in December from the previous month after increasing 1.8 percent in November, according to a separate Bloomberg survey. President Barack Obama has increased U.S. marketable debt to an unprecedented $7.27 trillion as he funds efforts to spur the economy. Brown, 50, cast himself as an independent to help thwart Obama’s health-care plan. To contact the reporter on this story: Wes Goodman in Singapore at wgoodman@bloomberg.net.

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