30-year Treasury yield tops 5.1%, highest in nearly a year

U.S. Treasurys spiked on Friday morning following a week of messy inflation data and as traders looked to price interest rate policy under new Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh. The yield on the 30-year bond jumped 8.6 basis points to yield just under 5.1%, the highest since May 22, 205 and nearing the highest since October 2023. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note — the main benchmark for U.S. borrowing — surged 7 basis points to 4.55%. Meanwhile, the 2-year Treasury note yield, which tends to react in line with short-term Fed rate decisions, was more than 6 basis points higher at 4.06%. One basis point equals 0.01%, and yields and prices move inversely to each another. The jump in yields comes as Warsh, who was confirmed by the Senate on Wednesday, grapples with an increasingly complicated inflation picture. President Donald Trump continues to push for interest rate cuts, even as data on consumer prices and imports shows prices ticking higher. Reports this week showed the consumer price index inflation rate at 3.8%, its highest since May 2023. Similarly, producer prices, which measure wholesale costs and signal pipeline inflation pressures, came in at a 6% annual rate, the highest since late-2022. Also, the cost of imports rose by 1.9% for the month of April, and 4.2% on a 12-month basis, data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed Thursday, as the conflict in the Middle East drives up energy prices, prompting importers to hike their costs. …