TREASURIES-Steady in Asia, await data and Bernanke
TOKYO, Feb 12 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasuries were little changed in Asia on Tuesday as investors awaited more clues on whether the U.S. economy was slipping into a recession.
With no major U.S. data scheduled this session, market participants were looking ahead to Wednesday's release of U.S. retail sales for January as a gauge of consumer spending, and to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony to Congress on Thursday about the state of the economy.
"Bond investors are nervously sitting on the sidelines for now as recent price actions were very choppy and it is hard to find a good time to enter the market," said a senior trader at a U.S. investment bank.
"They are waiting for the retail data and comments from Bernanke."
Treasury futures TYv1 were flat at 117-10.5/32.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury note US10YT=RR was little changed in price to yield 3.620 percent, nearly flat from late U.S. trade on Monday. The yield was off a three-week high of 3.8125 percent hit last week when a weak 30-year auction prompted selling in longer-dated bonds.
The two-year note US2YT=RR was also little changed in price to yield 1.922 percent, staying near the lowest since April 2004.
As a result, the two-year/10-year spread remained about 170 basis points, its widest since September 2004, and kept steepening pressure on the yield curve.
Traders said the two-year/10-year spread was likely to widen more if Bernanke signals that the Fed may cut rates further and faster, given a slew of weak economic data for January including employment figures and the Institute for Supply Management's non-manufacturing survey.
Long maturities have been more vulnerable to selling due to worries that inflation risks may loom in the future, given the Fed's aggressive rate-cutting campaign to help avoid a recession.
The central bank slashed its main interest rate by 125 basis points last month to 3.0 percent. (Editing by Chris Gallagher)
