US Treasury prices rise

US Treasury bonds were helped by problems in corporate credit and the subprime mortgage sector.

The immediate corporate difficulties have to do with a postponed debt sale connected to the leveraged buyout of a unit of General Motors, but that is only the latest in a series of problems related to corporate bonds.

New focus was put on the subprime mortgage sector when Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) reported that its quarterly profits dropped by 33 percent.

Two-year Treasury bonds were yielding 4.775 percent.

Ten-year issues closed at a yield of 4.946 percent, down from Monday’s closing yield of 4.965 percent, while thirty-year paper yielded 5.057 percent.

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