The yield on the key 10-year Treasury is tumbling as investors flee to safe haven assets in the face of Omicron worries

The yield on the key 10-year Treasury is tumbling as investors flee to safe haven assets in the face of Omicron worries

Investors pushed into US government bonds Tuesday, driving down yields as they looked for shelter from warnings about the Omicron variant of coronavirus, including one from the Federal Reserve's chief about the potential pain it may inflict on the world's largest economy. The US stock market opened Tuesday on track to end the last day of November in the red after Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel told the he doubts existing vaccines will be as effective against the new Omicron coronavirus strain. With inventors backing off from risk assets such as stocks, bond prices rose and put pressure on yields. Such moves lead the to drop to its lowest level in three weeks, by 8 basis points to 1.421%. The fell by 5 basis points to 1.806%, the lowest since late January. Treasury yields serve as benchmarks to a range of lending programs such as mortgages and auto loans. Along with Bancel's downbeat vaccine assessment, investors considered a gloomy outlook from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell before his Tuesday testimony on Capitol Hill. "The recent rise in COVID-19 cases and the emergence of the Omicron variant pose downside risks to employment and economic activity and increased uncertainty for inflation," Powell said