NEW YORK, June 16 (Reuters) – With 10-year U.S. Treasury yields already below 3 percent, a weak regional manufacturing index failed to push bond yields lower on Thursday in a hint the bond rally could be running out of steam.

Prices of U.S. government debt remained highly sensitive to the risk-on, risk-off trade, however.

Bonds opened higher on escalated concerns about the Greek debt situation, then trimmed some gains on healthier looking data on U.S. housing starts and new jobless claims.

The U.S. stock market’s advance also kept bonds from making headway, but bonds did better when the three major stock indexes pulled back a bit from session highs.

Finally, a weak June reading on the Philadelphia Federal Reserve’s business activity index — pointing to contraction in manufacturing – gave bonds only a short-lived boost.

“Bonds are about the risk-on, risk-off trade,” said Chris Rupkey, managing director and chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo/Mitsubishi UFJ. “We’re following events out of Europe closely, but the fact that stocks rose suggested we’d already priced in this weaker economic data.”

Typically, such a weak reading for the Philadelphia Fed index would have sent bond yields to a new low, Rupkey said.

NEW YORK, June 15 (Reuters) – U.S. Treasuries rallied on Wednesday after a weak regional manufacturing report and concern the Greek debt crisis could escalate propelled investors toward safe-haven U.S. government debt.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said its index measuring factory activity in New York State contracted for the first time since November, surprising economists, who had expected a rise.

In news that further drove a safety bid for U.S. government bonds, euro zone ministers failed to reach agreement on how to tackle the Greek debt crisis, while Moody’s threatened to downgrade French banks based on their large Greek debt holdings.

“People are focused on whether the economy is getting weaker,” said Steve Van Order, fixed income strategist with Calvert Investment Management in Bethesda, Maryland. “Meanwhile, the euro debt situation continues to promote weakness in riskier markets.

“Stocks and commodities are down and that definitely helps Treasuries,” added Van Order, whose firm has more than $14.5 billion in assets under management.

The three major U.S. stock indexes were all down more than 1.5 percent, while the price of crude oil in New York slid more than 4 percent.

Benchmark 10-year Treasury notes US10YT=RR were trading 1-1/32 higher in price to yield 2.98 percent, down from 3.10 percent late on Tuesday. Benchmark yields were on track for the biggest single-day drop since Feb. 22.

NEW YORK, June 15 (Reuters) – U.S. Treasuries rallied on Wednesday after a weak regional manufacturing report and concern the Greek debt crisis could escalate propelled investors toward safe-haven U.S. government debt.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said its index measuring factory activity in New York State contracted for the first time since November, surprising economists, who had expected a rise.

Meanwhile, euro zone ministers failed to reach agreement on how to tackle the Greek debt crisis, while Moody’s threatened to downgrade French banks based on their large Greek debt holdings, further driving a safety bid for U.S. government bonds.

“People are focused on whether the economy is getting weaker,” said Steve Van Order, fixed income strategist with Calvert Investment Management in Bethesda, Maryland. “Meanwhile, the euro debt situation continues to promote weakness in riskier markets.

“Stocks and commodities are down and that definitely helps Treasuries,” added Van Order, whose firm has more than $14.5 billion in assets under management.

Benchmark 10-year Treasury notes US10YT=RR rose 29/32 in price, their yields falling to 3 percent from 3.10 percent late on Tuesday.

Even Federal Reserve data on industrial production in May, which economists said was positive for the economy, failed to dent the safety bid for bonds.

NEW YORK, June 15 (Reuters) – U.S. Treasuries climbed on Wednesday, helped by a weak regional manufacturing report and concerns about the Greek debt situation.

News of a higher-than-expected rise in U.S. consumer prices in May weighed on bond prices, but only briefly.

In a timely glimpse of the manufacturing sector in June - and bullish news for bonds – the New York Federal Reserve Bank said its “Empire State” manufacturing activity index fell below zero in June, a reading that showed manufacturing contracting.

“The market responded to the firmer-than-expected Consumer Price Index with a small steepening selloff,” said David Ader, head of government bond strategy at CRT Capital Group.

But supporting the bond market was the “rather friendly” and “au courant” Empire State manufacturing report,” he said.

Benchmark 10-year Treasury notes US10YT=RR rose 9/32, their yields easing to 3.07 percent from 3.10 percent late on Tuesday.

The “very weak” Empire State report and the big drop in the index’s “outlook” and other components “puts more focus on Thursday’s Philadelphia Fed (business activity index to get a better “sense of (manufacturing activity in) June,” Ader said.

By Ellen Freilich

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) – As Holocaust survivors age and die, their children pick up the torch of remembrance.

Photographer Yuri Dojc and filmmaker Katya Krausova, both born to Holocaust survivors after the war, traveled from their respective homes in Toronto and London, to their parents’ native country, Slovakia, to document what was left of a once vibrant Jewish community.

The photographs from those trips, seen first in the Slovak National Museum in Bratislava, form the exhibit “Last Folio” at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City, which will run until August 9.

Born of filial duty and journalistic interest, the artists’ trip developed into one of compelling discovery and intimacy.

“It became an artistic journey, a philosophical journey, an emotional journey, a journey of cultural memory,” Krausova told Reuters.

Neither artist intended to search for family.

NEW YORK, June 14 (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury debt prices fell on Tuesday, pushing 10-year yields above 3 percent, after May U.S. retail sales figures offered a less gloomy view of the economy than recent data have conditioned investors to expect.

A 0.3 percent rise in U.S. retail sales, excluding autos, encouraged investors to seek higher returns in riskier assets and damped demand for safe-haven U.S. government debt.

The preference for higher returns in riskier assets was evident in the stock market, which opened sharply higher.

In contrast, benchmark 10-year Treasury notes US10YT=RR fell 21/32 in price, their yields rising to 3.07 percent from 2.99 percent on Monday. Benchmark yields dipped to 2.92 percent last week, the lowest level since early December.

“The retail sales numbers were consistent with a really soft second quarter, but nothing worse than that,” said Cary Leahey, economist at Decision Economics in New York. “They did not suggest the consumer is falling apart and that probably is what the bond market would need to see to rally further.”

Thirty-year bonds US30YT=RR fell 1-3/32, their yields rising to 4.27 percent from 4.21 percent on Monday.

“The retail sales report was the first time in a while that we got a number that was on the positive side for the economy and that would tend to break the rally we’ve seen in the Treasury market,” said James Barnes, senior fixed-income portfolio manager at National Penn Investors Trust Co in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania.

NEW YORK, June 13 (Reuters) – A U.S. Treasuries rally that has pushed benchmark 10-year yields below 3 percent paused on Monday as investors tentatively took on some risk, nudging prices of safe-haven U.S. debt down and yields up.

The timid step toward taking more risk was evident in the U.S. stock market, where major indexes were up, but below session highs, in late-morning trade.

As stocks gained modestly, 10-year Treasury notes US10YT=RR slipped 4/32, their yields rising to 2.99 percent from 2.98 percent on Friday. Two-year notes US2YT=RR were unchanged, yielding 0.42 percent.

“The Treasury market has come a long way, so it’s not surprising to see some two-way price action,” said Robert Tipp, chief investment strategist for Prudential Fixed Income with $240 billion in assets under management.

“At this point, there’s two-way risk for Treasuries,” he said. “They could suffer on concerns about the debt ceiling or from a potential upside surprise in the economic data.”

After an “extremely long stretch of surprisingly weak economic data, some normalization in the economic data could hurt Treasury prices,” Tipp said.

On the other hand, investors hardly seemed ready to dive into riskier assets and abandon the safe-haven debt.

NEW YORK, June 13 (Reuters) – A U.S. Treasuries rally that pushed benchmark 10-year yields below 3 percent paused on Monday as investors’ willingness to take on more risk sent prices of safe-haven U.S. debt prices down and yields up.

The inclination to tolerate more risk was evident in the performance of U.S. stock index futures which rose in early dealings, pointing to a higher open on Wall Street.

As stock index futures prices rose, 10-year Treasury notes US10YT=RR fell 8/32, their yields rising to 3 percent from 2.98 percent on Friday.

Two-year yields slipped 1/32, their yields rising to 0.43 percent from 0.41 percent on Friday.

“The (bond) market is looking a bit tired,” said David Ader, head of government bond strategy at CRT Capital Group in Stamford, Connecticut.

Ader said patterns point to a “deeper correction” for Treasuries, though he said they have looked that way for a couple of weeks and that shorts have tended to get trapped when the market moves to still lower yields.

“From a trading perspective, it seems you can play this: selling 10s on a move to the lows and buying against the 9- to 15-day moving averages” he said in a note.

NEW YORK, June 10 (Reuters) – U.S. Treasuries rose on Friday as falling stocks and European debt fears spurred a safe-haven rally that is likely to bleed over into next week.

The benchmark 10-year yield moved below 3 percent again on Friday as stocks closed out a six-week slide. Next week’s heavy calendar of U.S. economic data could extend the downward move in yields if the worsening trend growth is confirmed.

“We are at the mercy of stocks,” said Chris Rupkey, managing director and chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo/Mitsubishi UFJ. “When stocks move down, bond prices move higher and people get stopped out. When stocks move up, bond prices weaken and yields move up.”

The benchmark 10-year yield US10YT=RR stood at 2.98 percent in late trade, slightly below 2.99 percent a week ago, and about 70 basis points below its level in early April.

The announcement of the swan song purchases in the Federal Reserve’s $600 billion second phase of quantitative easing underscored the imminent end of the U.S. central bank’s role as a contributor of stimulus to the economy.

Weaker trade data from China, the scrapping of a planned large IPO by Ally Financial and ongoing disputes about a second bailout for debt-stricken Greece also hurt investor sentiment.

But with the state of the U.S. economy investors’ main concern, data on producer and consumer prices, housing starts, jobless claims, manufacturing, and retail sales will get a lot of attention from investors in the coming week, traders said.

NEW YORK, June 9 (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury debt prices fell on Thursday as bargain-hunting investors favored stocks after six straight days of declines and the Treasury’s auction of 30-year bonds drew tepid demand.

Yields on the benchmark 10-year note, which had dipped to six-month lows of 2.92 percent on a rise in new jobless claims, climbed back to 3 percent as stocks gained and on the unenthusiastic bid for Treasury’s $13 billion auction of reopened 30-year bonds.

Analysts said bond investors lacked enough motive to buy Treasuries with 10-year yields below 3 percent.

“The stock market stabilized and the economy does not appear to be weak enough to allow 10-year notes to stick at yields below 3 percent over the longer term,” said Chris Rupkey, managing director and chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo/Mitsubishi UFJ.

In addition, while the Federal Reserve is far from raising interest rates, no further easing has been promised either.

“The economy is not weak enough to bring the Fed back in off the sidelines with (a third phase of large-scale asset purchases) in a couple of weeks,” Rupkey said.

Since late last year, the Fed has been steadily purchasing Treasuries in an amount to total $600 billion when the program concludes at the end of this month. The purchases comprise the Fed’s second phase of quantitative easing, known as QE2, an effort intended to stimulate lending and economic growth.