Analysts noted some different forces at play as global borrowing costs rise.
"In Europe and the UK it is more because of heightened inflation expectations, while in the U.S. the upticks in long-end yields are still more driven by higher real yields although inflation expectations have been creeping up too," said Frances Cheung, OCBC's head of FX and rates strategy.
Real yields are the returns that a bond investor demands above inflation, an indicator of true borrowing costs for governments and companies, and can be affected by several factors, including long run economic growth.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent shrugged off worries about the bond market in an interview with Reuters on Sunday, saying the effect of higher energy prices would fade and higher yields reflected confidence in the economy.
Michiel Tukker, senior rates analyst at ING, said it did appear that growth in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world was pushing up real yields.
"Combine that with the deficit story, and a lot of supply (of debt) and you could argue that things don't look that stretched yet. Real rates are still on par or even a bit below pre-2008 levels," he said.
"There's no easy turnaround ... and if you ask who will take the other side of this trade (i.e. betting yields will fall), that's difficult to see."
And the global story can become self-reinforcing, since higher yields in one market can push them up elsewhere.
Australian 10-year yields AU10YT=RR notched their sharpest rise in five months on Tuesday, in part due to fears higher JGB yields would mean fewer Japanese buyers of Australian debt. AUD/
Further Japanese yield rises could drive a gradual re-allocation into Japanese assets, said TD Securities senior rates strategist Prashant Newnaha.
"It's a genuine regime change. JGBs were the anchor for global fixed income for a long time," he said.
"Now it has flipped."
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