the 10year us treasury yield briefly topped the 16 level on thursday and traded at its highest level in more than a year raising concern for investors across asset classes the yield on the benchmark 10year treasury note climbed to 151 up about 12 basis points on the session a basis point is equal to 001 the yield on the 30year treasury bond rose to 2286 yields move inversely to prices the 10year traded as high as 1614 during the session which was the highest level since feb 14 2020 some traders described the jump above 16 as a flash move and yields quickly fell back to near 15 the move higher in rates is unnerving investors fearing it could be driven by inflation rather than economic recovery the 10year yield ended january at 109 it closed 2020 well under 1 so its moved more than a half percentage point in under two months quite rapid for the bond market and relative to rates at these historically low levels to be sure if bond yields continue to rise and there is a smooth rotation out of growth and defensive stocks into value and cyclical stocks the fed will remain sanguine strategist albert edwards of societe generale said in a note but the risk is growing that with so many bubbles blown by the fed something will burst soon the move marked the first time the 10year has traded above 15 since feb 21 2020 the rise in treasury yields lifted the entire curve with shortterm and mediumterm yields rising as well though consumer prices were up just 14 from a year ago in january recent indicators of retail sales durable goods purchases and service sector prices have shown inflation in the pipeline the 5year breakeven rate an indicator of the bond markets expectations for inflation rose to 238 wednesday its highest level since before the financial crisis of 2008 still policymakers continue to downplay the possibility of troublesome inflation ahead as the us recovers from the covid19 pandemic we could have a surge in spending as the economy reopens we dont expect that to be a persistent longerterm force so while you could see prices move up thats a different thing from persistent high inflation which we do not expect federal reserve chairman jerome powell said during a senate committee hearing wednesday yields moved higher in afternoon trading following an auction of 7year treasury bonds peter boockvar the chief investment officer at bleakley advisory group described the auction as awful and noted that dealers were stuck with a much higher percentage of the bonds than the 12month average reflecting weak demand some strong economic data boosted yields further on thursday weekly data for new unemployment insurance claims came in at 730000 below the 845000 new claims expected by economists surveyed by dow jones data for durable goods also came in better than expected an update to the fourthquarter gdp growth estimate came in at 41 slightly above the advance reading released by the commerce department last month stocks fell to new lows for the day as yields rose the dow was last down more than 100 points pending home sales data for january showed a 28 decline compared with the previous month missing estimates