The 10-year Treasury note yield just broke below 1%.

The 10-year Treasury note yield TMUBMUSD10Y, -1.71% tumbled 12.4 basis points to 0.967%, carving out a record intraday low of 0.914% in Tuesday trading, according to Tradeweb data.


The direction of the benchmark maturity’s yield is important for economists, households and central bankers as it serves as a benchmark for all kinds of loans including long-term mortgages. The long-dated bond also serves as a broader barometer of how easy it is to borrow money, and an indication of how investors perceive the U.S. economy’s prospects.




Analysts say the Fed’s move to ease monetary policy ahead of its scheduled policy meeting in two weeks suggests the central bank wanted to demonstrate its willingness to act, in line with research by Fed officials suggesting that early and aggressive rate cuts are more effective when interest rates are near zero.


https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-10-year-treasury-note-yield-just-broke-below-1-heres-how-it-happened-2020-03-03

The U.S. bond-market’s benchmark yield plunged below 1% on Tuesday, a possibility that few analysts and investors contemplated at the beginning of the year.

Investors have attributed the slide in U.S. Treasury yields to a combination of factors including 

• slower global economic growth, 
• the attraction of a positive return when negative-yielding debt is the alternative in Europe and Japan abroad, and 
• the absence of any inflation threat.

But in the end, the spark for the furious rally in Treasurys on Tuesday came from a less abstract source: 

• a surprise 50 basis point interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve to counteract worries that the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic would deliver a painful blow to consumer and market confidence.