The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes fell 4.3 basis points to 1.640% and the breakeven rate on five-year US Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) slid to 2.608%.
"We've probably already reached the peak level of economic activity, and that probably happened in March and April," Ricchiuto said.
The yield on 10-year Treasury notes was up 0.5 basis point to 1.654% as the longer-dated government debt edged slightly higher but the short end remained mostly unchanged.
"Forward breakevens are lower than spot breakevens, suggesting the market thinks inflation is going to rise then fall," he said.
"Right now it's month-end rebalancing," said Ian Lyngen, head of US rates strategy at BMO Capital Markets in New York, noting the next major market catalyst will be next Friday's jobs report for April.
The yields fell back down in the afternoon, however, and are now trading in the middle of their recent range.
Business reopenings from COVID-19-related shutdowns have accelerated this month, and investors are also pricing for higher inflation as fiscal spending increases.
"With the reopening process, it seems to have hit a higher gear in April," said Tom Simons, a money market economist at Jefferies in New York.
Demand at a $60 billion sale of two-year notes and a $61 billion sale of five-year notes on Monday was relatively solid, pricing with yields just a fraction higher than where they had traded before the auctions.
The seven-year is in focus, however, after the maturity drew only weak demand at auctions in February and March.
The benchmark 10-year yield was up 4.1 basis points at 1.6135%, continuing its increase from multiweek lows reached April 15.
Investors were watching to gauge the market's appetite for $24 billion of 20-year bonds scheduled to be auctioned on Wednesday, said Justin Lederer, Cantor Fitzgerald Treasury analyst.
The 30-year bond yield also eased after reaching 2.518% on Thursday, its highest since August 2019. It was last less than a basis point lower at 2.4685%.
"Ultimately, what we're seeing now is a great deal of tension between market prices that embed several rate hikes before the end of 2023 and the Fed's forecast that doesn't expect liftoff until 2024," he said.
The 5-year and 7-year note yields were up 4 basis points, while that of the benchmark 10-year note hit a near 13-month high.
The US yield curve was a little flatter on Monday, with the spread between 2-year and 10-year notes at 144.1 basis points, after hitting on Friday its steepest since September 2015.
The benchmark 10-year yield was up 4.1 basis points at 1.4046% in morning trading, its first time above 1.4% since a year ago, and reached as high as 1.435%
Patrick Leary, chief market strategist and senior trader at Incapital, said the trading could also be a sign of investor skepticism about Powell's reassurance.
Thirty-year US yields rose too, touching a one-year high of 2.08% and are some 40 bps above where they closed 2020.
The market has fully embraced the prospects of Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus, and the accelerated vaccine rollout is support of further bearish price action as well.
Retail sales dropped 0.7% last month, the Commerce Department said. Data for November was revised down to show sales declining 1.4% instead of 1.1% as previously reported.
This morning's disappointing retail sales figures reinforced the idea that more stimulus will be needed.
Against a basket of currencies the dollar sat at 90.923, which is about half a percent above a two-and-a-half-year low it hit on Friday as short sellers piled in.