WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Extending the upward trend seen over the past several sessions, treasuries moved to the upside over the course of the trading day on Tuesday.
Bond prices showed a lack of direction in morning trading before climbing firmly into positive territory in the afternoon. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, edged down by 1.3 basis points to 2.307 percent.
The continued strength among treasuries came as stocks on Wall Street moved modestly lower after reaching record highs in early trading.
Trading activity was somewhat subdued, however, with a lack of major U.S. economic data keeping traders on the sidelines.
The economic calendar remains relatively quiet throughout the week, although reports on weekly jobless claims, wholesale inventories and consumer sentiment may attract attention in the coming days.
Meanwhile, the Treasury Department revealed that its auction of $24 billion worth of three-year notes attracted modestly below average demand.
The three-year note auction drew a high yield of 1.750 percent and a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.76, while the ten previous three-year note auctions had an average bid-to-cover ratio of 2.84.
The bid-to-cover ratio is a measure of demand that indicates the amount of bids for each dollar worth of securities being sold.
Amid another quiet day on the U.S. economic front, trading on Wednesday may be impacted by reaction to the results of the Treasury's auction of $23 billion worth of ten-year notes.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX