Treasury bond exchange traded funds maintained their momentum, with benchmark yields on 10-year notes dipping to a new record low on Friday, as investors feared Brexit would weigh on global growth and cause the Federal Reserve to push off interest rate hikes.
On Friday, the iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF (NYSEArca: IEF) rose 0.3% and iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (NYSEArca: TLT) gained 1.4%. Both funds are trading at their all-time highs.
Related: 12 Treasury Bond ETFs with Thrust as Brexit Uncertainty Extends
Meanwhile, yields on benchmark 10-year notes dipped to 1.456% and yields on 30-year Treasuries fell to 2.241%. The yield on 10-years was also briefly trading at 1.385% in early European trading hours, eclipsing its prior record low in 2012, reports Ben Eisen for the Wall Street Journal.
Treasury bond prices found support from short-sellers trying to cover their trades and a surge in demand after some second guessing over the European Central Bank’s bond purchasing program.
Traders heavily shorted U.S. Treasuries Thursday to close out positions as the quarter ended and set up for the U.S. long weekend, according to according to Jim Vogel, an interest-rate strategist at FTN Financial.
[related_stories]After the close Thursday, rumors of the ECB considering a change to its bond program that would benefit peripheral debt began circulating, which sparked a rush out of high-grade sovereigns and into peripheral debt. However, news reports suggested that the ECB was not actually considering a change caused flows to reverse back into high-grade debt, which pulled down yields and created overflow demand into U.S. Treasuries.