U.S. Treasury yields climbed on Monday morning, as investors kept an eye on the latest developments with the Covid omicron variant.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose by 5 basis points to 1.5363% at 4:25 a.m. ET. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond climbed by 5 basis points to 1.8805. Yields move inversely to prices and 1 basis point is equal to 0.01%.
Treasury yields slid on Friday, as investors searched for safe-haven assets, amid fears around the newly discovered Covid variant.
The World Health Organization labeled the new omicron strain of Covid a “variant of concern” on Friday.
While scientists continue to research the variant, omicron’s large number of mutations has raised alarm. Preliminary evidence suggests the strain has an increased risk of reinfection, according to the WHO.
The variant was first reported to the WHO from South Africa and has been found in the U.K., Israel, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Australia and Hong Kong, but not yet in the U.S. Many countries, including the U.S., moved to restrict travel from southern Africa.
Looking ahead to data releases due out later in the week, investors will be monitoring the November nonfarm payroll report, set to be published on Friday. Jobs and inflation data are both being used by the Fed to determine its timeline on normalizing monetary policy.
Andrew Sheets, chief cross-asset strategist at Morgan Stanley, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Monday that his team believed that markets would now price in fewer interest rate hikes in 2022, on the back of this latest news around the omicron variant.
He said that Morgan Stanley expected that the Fed wouldn’t start hiking interest rates until the first quarter of 2023 and believed the market would price in more hikes after that, meaning a “later start but a faster pace after” that point.
On Monday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is due to give the opening remarks at an event introducing the New York Innovation Center, at 3:05 p.m. ET.
Fed Governor Michelle Bowman is scheduled to give a speech on central banks and indigenous communities at the Virtual Symposium on Indigenous Economies, at 5:05 p.m. ET.
Meanwhile, pending home sales data for November is due out at 10 a.m. ET.
Auctions are slated to be held on Monday for $57 billion of 13-week bills and $51 billion of 26-week bills.
— CNBC’s Hannah Miao contributed to this market report.
