US Treasury yields recorded the biggest one-day decline since early November, reflecting renewed demand for government debt after sustained sales in the first quarter.
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury benchmark was 1.531%, according to Tradeweb, compared to 1.637% on Wednesday.
Yields, which are falling as bond prices rise, fell overnight before falling sharply near the start of US trading and continued to slide throughout the session. This came despite a strong retail sales ratio, which could normally be expected to increase yields further, as they tend to increase as the economic outlook improves.
Debt investors, however, have given up good economic data in recent days, while ignoring some weak data in the winter. Instead, higher yields attracted buyers, apparently helped by technical factors, such as renewed demand from Japanese investors.
Japanese banks and insurers contributed to a surge in global sales in February, according to investors and analysts, driven by efforts to complete the return on investment for the year ended March 31. Now there is evidence that they will buy again. , with new government data showing that Japanese investors bought the equivalent of $ 15.6 billion in overseas bonds last week, the most since November.