U.S. Treasuries suffer ahead of October retail sales, host of 2-tier economic data

The U.S. Treasuries suffered during Friday’s afternoon session ahead of the country’s retail sales for the month of October, scheduled to be released today by 13:30GMT. In addition, a host of 2-tier economic data are also lined up for release through the day, which shall add further direction into the debt market.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield surged 2 basis points to 1.834 percent, the super-long 30-year bond yield rose 1-1/2 basis points to 2.313 percent and the yield on the short-term 2-year traded tad 1 basis point higher at 1.604 percent by 13:10GMT.

A Financial Times report indicates that US and China are struggling to come close to an agreement of a “phase one” deal, with difficulties in IP protection, agricultural purchases and tariff rollbacks, OCBC Treasury Research reported.

Quoting unnamed US officials involved in the talks, the article suggests that American negotiators have been frustrated by what they perceive as lack of Chinese concessions in return for the demand on a rollback of existing tariffs, the report added.

However, news that US Senate is preparing for a quick passage of the Hong Kong human rights bill may complicate matters further, as well, if it adds to the already knotty broader relationship between the two countries, OCBC further noted in the report.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 Futures remained tad 0.25 percent higher at 3,104.62 by 13:15GMT.