Bond market yields down

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Yields were down and prices were up on US Treasury bonds on Tuesday as investors reacted to lower consumer confidence, purchasing, and existing home sales data. At late morning, the two-year treasury was yielding 4.668 percent, 5.1 basis points lower, while the 10-year bonds were down 3.7 basis points to 4.557 percent.European bond yields were lower as well as the new data out of the United States spurred month-end buying in the eurozone despite European consumer confidence data that was stronger than had been expected. The two-year Schatz saw yields decline by 2.3 basis points to 2.991 percent, while the 10-year Bund dropped 4.4 basis points to 3.478 percent late in the day.In the UK, new economic data showing lower housing prices, slower retail sales, and falling consumer confidence in January all combined to send bond yields lower there. The two-year and ten-year gilts both dropped 3.3 basis points, with the two-year gilt yielding 4.303 percent and the ten-year gilt at a yield of 4.182 percent respectively.Meanwhile, yields of Japanese government bonds also declined, with the two-year bond down 0.5 basis points to 0.465 percent. This decline came despite the fact that yields on the two-year bond has more than doubled in a month.