Global government bonds remained under pressure on Tuesday as traders weighed the prospect of monetary policy tightening by central banks to slow soaring inflation.
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note, which underpins the cost of debt around the world, rose 0.04 percentage points to 1.96%.
The two-year Treasury yield, which closely tracks interest rate expectations, rose 0.03 percentage points to 1.32%. The dollar index, which measures the strength of the greenback against major currencies, rose 0.2%.
The Italian 10-year bond yield rose 0.07 percentage point to 1.88%, although the equivalent Greek yield fell 0.06 percentage point to 2.31%.
The yield on the 10-year German Bund, the barometer of broader eurozone borrowing costs which until last month had remained below zero since May 2019, rose 0.04 percentage points to reach 0.26%.
Meanwhile, the UK 10-year gilt yield climbed 0.09 percentage points to 1.68%.
In equity markets, the US S&P 500 index traded flat in early trading in New York on Tuesday. The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite swung between small gains and small losses, after disappointing profits at drugmaker Pfizer and SoftBank scrapped its $66 billion sale of the UK-based chipmaker Arm Holdings.
Europe’s regional Stoxx 600 index traded flat, having fallen along with Wall Street markets this year.
In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1% and Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 closed up 0.1%.
Brent, the oil benchmark, fell 1.8% to $90.97 a barrel, but remained near its highest level since 2014.