Treasuries may have to wait longer for resolutions

NEW YORK: Perhaps the best that can be said of a painful year across financial markets is that there’s room for improvement in 2019. It’s less clear exactly what might pull investor sentiment, and Treasury yields, off the current lows. Risk-averse trading in December, which is on track to be the worst month for US stocks since 2009 has dragged the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield down to around 2.71%.

That’s more than half a percentage point below its 2018 peak in October. Investors are responding in part to tightening financial conditions and a souring economic outlook, and some think that the Federal Reserve could be headed for a mistake with further interest-rate hikes.