Yields steady as risk appetite improves

CHICAGO: US Treasury yields hovered around the unchanged mark on Monday as stocks opened higher following last week's selloff amid a surge in coronavirus cases.

The benchmark 10-year yield was flat at 0.6381%.

The global death toll from COVID-19 surpassed half a million people on Sunday, according to a Reuters tally, with the United States accounting for about one-quarter of all the deaths.

Bill Merz, head of fixed income research at US Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis, said he expected small changes for long-term yields in line with risk preferences, noting that Treasuries may be "one of the least interesting markets for the rest of the year" due to the Federal Reserve's influence on the short end of the curve.

"There's not many places to go in terms of yields in the front end of the curve," he said. "They're going to be relatively close to where they are now until the Fed decides otherwise and that has a pretty powerful influence at the longer end of the curve as well."

Investors this week will focus on employment, consumer confidence and manufacturing data for June for signs if the US economy will continue to rebound after indications of a pickup in May.

A closely watched part of the US Treasury yield curve measuring the gap between yields on two- and 10-year Treasury notes, which is viewed as an indicator of economic expectations, was at 47.80 basis points, less than a basis point higher than at Friday's close.