US Treasury yields plunge to new record lows on coronavirus panic

US treasury yields fell to record lows on Monday as worries over coronavirus and oil price decline sparked a massive sell-off in equities. However, the yields bounced back later. After falling as low as 0.318 per cent in early trading, the 10-year treasury yield climbed back to 0.512 per cent. “It does look like risk markets are recovering a little bit, so maybe it’s some investors buying the dip in equities,” said Gennadiy Goldberg, senior US rates strategist at TD Securities in New York. He cautioned while he has not seen any particular positive news, “liquidity is still very thin, so I wouldn’t read into market moves here just because there is not a lot of volume behind some of these moves.”

As global markets tumbled, investors fled headlong to bonds to hedge the economic trauma of COVID-19, and oil plunged more than 30 per cent.