Treasuries Close Nearly Unchanged After Recovering From Early Weakness

After coming under pressure early in the session, treasuries regained ground over the course of the trading day on Tuesday.

Bond prices climbed well off their worst levels of the day before ending the session nearly unchanged. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, inched up by less than a basis point to 1.726 percent.

Early in the session, the ten-year yield reached a high of 1.765 percent, its highest intraday level in fourteen months.

The initial weakness among treasuries came amid optimism about the coronavirus vaccine rollouts and the economy reopening as well as President Joe Biden’s soon to be announced infrastructure plan.

Further reducing the appeal of safe havens like bonds, the Conference Board released a report showing consumer confidence skyrocketed by much more than anticipated in the month of March.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index spiked to 109.7 in March from a downwardly revised 90.4 in February.

Economists had expected the consumer confidence index to climb to 96.0 from the 91.3 originally reported for the previous month.

With the much bigger than expected increase, the consumer confidence index reached its highest level since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March of 2020.

Selling pressure waned over the course of the morning, however, inspiring some traders to pick up treasuries at reduced prices and higher yields.

Trading on Wednesday may be impacted by reaction to a report on private sector employment, as the markets will be closed when the Labor Department releases its more closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.

Source: Read Full Article