10-year Treasury yield is steady above 2% as investors digest inflation data and Russia-Ukraine war

The 10-year Treasury yield was steady above 2% on Friday as investors digested inflation data released in the previous session and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose 1 basis point to 2.016% at 7 :30 a.m. ET. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond moved 1 basis point lower to 2.39%. Yields move inversely to prices and 1 basis point is equal to 0.01%.

The 10-year yield topped 2% on Thursday, after a hotter-than-expected inflation reading. The consumer price index rose 7.9% over the year to February, its highest level since 1982, and higher than the anticipated 7.8% increase.

Despite persisting concerns about higher inflation, yields retreated on Friday morning. The Russia-Ukraine war has weighed on investor appetite for riskier assets such as stocks and seen them instead seek safe haven investments, including bonds.

Talks between Russia and Ukraine came to a halt on Thursday, with foreign ministers from both countries making no progress on a possible cease-fire agreement.

The discussions came a day after Russian forces bombed a maternity hospital in Mariupol — an attack which Ukrainian authorities say killed three people, including one child.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Thursday that she expected the Russia-Ukraine war to contribute to stubborn inflation, foreseeing that prices would stay high for another year.

Thanos Papasavvas, founder and chief investment officer at ABP Invest, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Friday that his firm believed “inflation is here to stay.”

He explained that globalization, which had helped bring prices down, was receding. This meant that “prices and uncertainty will be higher” going forward, he said.

“So we’ve got inflation, we think rates are going to continue rising, there is a risk of stagflation — so it is not good,” Papasavvas said.

There are no auctions scheduled to be held on Friday.

— CNBC’s Chloe Taylor contributed to this market report.