(Updates with market activity, analyst comment) By Ross Kerber April 19 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury yields were higher on Monday even as equities markets fell, as traders looked ahead to a Wednesday bond auction. The benchmark 10-year yield was up 3.2 basis points in afternoon trading at 1.6047% after reaching as high as 1.617% during the morning. The level was well above the multiweek low of 1.528% reached April 15. The decline from the day"s highest yields came as Wall Street"s main indexes slid from record levels, while investors watched the first-quarter earnings season for signs of how well corporate America is rebounding from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. "Yields are taking their cues from the equity markets," said Jim Barnes, director of fixed income for Bryn Mawr Trust. He and others said investors are also waiting to gauge the market"s appetite for $24 billion of 20-year bonds scheduled to be auctioned on Wednesday. Stronger economic expectations could also drive up yields on midterm five-year and seven-year notes this week, said Justin Lederer, Cantor Fitzgerald Treasury analyst. But investors seem uncertain whether to resume the selling that drove the benchmark 10-year yield to 1.776% on March 30, the highest since before the COVID-19 pandemic. "It still feels like we"re trying to establish a range here," Lederer said. Overnight repurchase rates, which measure the cost of borrowing short-term cash using Treasuries or other debt securities as collateral, have turned negative in some recent cases, a trend analysts say could prompt the Fed to lift the short-term rates it manages. A closely watched part of the U.S. Treasury yield curve measuring the gap between yields on two- and 10-year Treasury notes, seen as an indicator of economic expectations, was at 144 basis points, about a basis point higher than Friday"s close. The two-year U.S. Treasury yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations, was unchanged at 0.1632%. April 19 Monday 2:30PM New York / 1830 GMT Price Current Net Yield % Change (bps) Three-month bills 0.02 0.0203 0.002 Six-month bills 0.04 0.0406 -0.002 Two-year note 99-237/256 0.1632 0.000 Three-year note 100-26/256 0.3408 -0.002 Five-year note 99-152/256 0.834 0.011 Seven-year note 99-212/256 1.2759 0.021 10-year note 95-168/256 1.6047 0.032 20-year bond 95-16/256 2.1831 0.034 30-year bond 90-244/256 2.2956 0.033 DOLLAR SWAP SPREADS Last (bps) Net Change (bps) U.S. 2-year dollar swap 11.00 -0.25 spread U.S. 3-year dollar swap 11.75 -0.25 spread U.S. 5-year dollar swap 7.50 -0.75 spread U.S. 10-year dollar swap -2.50 -0.50 spread U.S. 30-year dollar swap -29.25 -1.00 spread (Reporting by Ross Kerber in Boston; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Cynthia Osterman)