The US government bond market suffered its worst sell-off in more than two months on Monday as contagion from the European bond rout rolled across the Atlantic, pushing US borrowing costs towards their highest closing levels this year.
The US Treasury market has felt the heat from the turmoil in eurozone debt markets in recent weeks, but has generally held up better than most European government bonds, which have suffered a sharp reversal from the quantitative-easing inspired rally earlier this year.
The US resilience evaporated on Monday, as the 10-year Treasury yield shot up by 13 basis points — the most since March 6 — to 2.28 per cent. The 10-year yield touched a 2015 intraday high of 2.31 per cent last week, but Monday’s close was the highest closing level this year. German government bonds suffered further falls, but the benchmark 10-year Bund yield only rose 6bp to 0.6 per cent.