By Deborah Levine, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Treasury prices rose on Monday, pushing yields down, as uncertainty about sovereign debt in Europe and comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke over the weekend about potentially buying more bonds increased demand for U.S. debt.
Yields on 10-year notes (UST10Y 2.96, -0.05, -1.66%) , which move inversely to prices, fell 5 basis points to 2.96%. A basis point is 0.01%.
Yields on 2-year notes (UST2YR 0.45, -0.03, -5.88%) declined 3 basis points to 0.45%.
Later in the session, the Fed will buy about $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion in debt maturing from 2028 to 2040 as part of its existing debt-purchase program.
In an interview on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” program on Sunday, Bernanke said that the central bank could commit to buying more than the existing $600 billion in Treasurys if the economy needs it. Read more on Bernanke.
On Friday, 10-year yields rose above 3%, giving up a rally after the monthly jobs report showed the unemployment rate unexpectedly rose in November as the pace of job growth slowed.
Potentially limiting gains, traders are setting up for three auctions this week, as the government will be selling 3-year (UST30Y 4.28, -0.04, -0.86%) , 10-year and 30-year bonds starting Tuesday.
