TREASURIES-Longer-dated yields rise on fiscal fears after Moody's downgrade

Updated in New York morning time

By Karen Brettell

NEW YORK, May 19 (Reuters) - Longer-dated Treasury yields rose on Monday with the 30-year yield hitting an 18-month high on concerns that a U.S. tax bill will increase the debt load by more than previously expected.

The yields were also pushed higher after Moody’s Investors Service on Friday cut the United States' sovereign credit rating from the top “Aaa,” drawing attention to the country’s deteriorating fiscal outlook.

U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tax-cut bill won approval from a key congressional committee on Sunday and Republicans who control the U.S. House of Representatives will try to nudge the bill toward passage this week.

“That looks like it's going to add more to the deficit than perhaps initially forecasted when looking at a Republican-controlled House and Senate,” said Michael Lorizio, head of U.S. rates trading at Manulife Investment Management. “That's probably as much, if not a greater driver than the downgrade.”

Nonpartisan analysts say the bill could potentially add $3 trillion to $5 trillion to the nation's ballooning $36.2 trillion debt pile over the next decade.

Moody's cited concerns about the nation's growing debt as a reason for the downgrade and said the fiscal proposals under consideration were unlikely to lead to a sustained, multi-year reduction in deficits.

The action was not much of a surprise to investors, however, given rivals Fitch and S&P Global downgraded the U.S. years ago.

“To the extent this announcement was not unexpected, and with investor positioning more neutral than it was in early April, we would expect significantly smaller moves than experienced last month,” JPMorgan analysts led by Jay Barry said in a report on Sunday.

That said, “over the longer term, this downgrade will likely result in higher interest expense,” JPMorgan added.

Treasury yields jumped in early April after Trump announced larger than expected tariffs on trading partners, increasing concerns over higher inflation and a sharper economic slowdown.

These concerns have since eased following Trump’s 90-day pause on most of the levies, and after the U.S. and China last week reached a trade agreement.

The 2-year note US2YT=RR yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations, rose 1.3 basis points to 3.996%.

The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes US10YT=RR was 7.8 basis points higher at 4.517%, having earlier reached 4.564%, the highest since April 11.

The yield curve between two-year and 10-year notes US2US10=TWEB steepened by 5 basis points to 52 basis points.

The 30-year bond US30YT=RR yield was up 9.4 basis points at 4.992% after touching 5.037%, the highest since November 2023.

Fiscal concerns are likely to remain the prime market focus this week.

“We don't have very much else to focus on in the market this week because there's very little economic data,” said Lorizio.

Demand for longer-dated debt will be tested when the Treasury Department sells $16 billion in 20-year bonds on Wednesday and $18 billion in 10-year Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities on Thursday.

(Reporting by Karen Brettell; Additional reporting by Johann M Cherian and Amanda Cooper; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

((karen.brettell@tr.com))