NEW YORK - U.S. Treasury yields climbed to three-week highs on Friday as investors piled back into Wall Street on hopes Washington and Beijing were moving to end their trade dispute as well as on stronger-than-expected data on manufacturing output.

Bond yields increased for a second week as 10-year yields climbed further from the near one-year low on Jan. 4.

"It's a belief the thaw between the U.S. and China is growing so that's stabilizing markets. The risk-on environment is weighing on bonds here," said Craig Bishop, lead strategist of U.S. fixed income strategies at RBC Wealth Management in Minneapolis.

The improved outlook on trade came in the aftermath of a Wall Street Journal report that U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was considering lifting some or all tariffs imposed on Chinese imports. The Treasury denied Mnuchin floated such a recommendation.

The S&P 500 index was up 1.10 percent, while the Dow was 1.15 percent higher and the Nasdaq was up 0.81 percent.

The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes hit a three-week peak, last trading at 2.781 percent, 3.4 basis points above Thursday's close.

The 10-year yield climbed about 8 basis points this week, its biggest weekly rise since the week of Nov. 2, according to Refinitiv data.

Treasury yields have risen partly on competition from higher-yielding corporate bonds. Companies have raised $25.7 billion through investment-grade debt sales this week, according to IFR.

Worries about a slowing U.S. economy eased following a Federal Reserve report that showed industrial production grew 0.3 percent in December as manufacturing output surged, more than what analysts had forecast.

But consumer sentiment deteriorated in early January to its weakest since October 2016, before Donald Trump's  Presidential victory, according to a University of Michigan survey.

The federal government shutdown, which is in its 28th day, remains a concern for investors as well as consumers.

Given the recent batch of mixed data and volatility in the stock market, Fed officials have signaled they are in no hurry to raise interest rates again after a rate hike last month.

Interest rates futures implied traders saw about a 27 percent chance of a rate increase by year-end, up from 19 percent a week earlier but down from 40 percent a month ago, CME Group's FedWatch program showed.

Earlier Friday, New York Fed President John Williams said the U.S. central bank must be patient and guided by data when deciding whether to raise interest rates. San Francisco Fed chief Mary Daly said she was leaning toward pausing rate hikes for a while.

U.S. financial markets will be closed on Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

January 18 Friday 3:04PM New York / 2004 GMT       

(Reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Chris Reese and Andrea Ricci)

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