WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Treasuries showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading session on Wednesday before eventually the day roughly flat.
Bond prices moved modestly higher in morning trading but pulled back near the unchanged line in the afternoon. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, edged down by less than a basis point to 4.296 percent.
The choppy trading on the day came as traders seemed reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's highly anticipated speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium on Friday.
Powell's remarks could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Fed's next monetary policy meeting in September.
CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating an 82.9 percent chance the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point next month.
The roughly flat close by treasuries also came following the release of the minutes of the Fed's latest monetary policy meeting.
The minutes revealed most officials still see the upside risk to inflation as the bigger threat to the economic outlook, although a couple were more worried about the downside risk to employment.
While the Fed announced its widely expected decision to leave interest rates following the July 29-30 meeting, Governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman preferred to lower rates by 25 basis points.
The minutes, released Wednesday afternoon, revealed Waller and Bowman judged inflation was running close to the Fed's 2 percent objective excluding tariff effects and that higher tariffs were unlikely to have persistent effects on inflation.
'Furthermore, they assessed that downside risk to employment had meaningfully increased with the slowing of the growth of economic activity and consumer spending, and that some incoming data pointed to a weakening of labor market conditions,' the Fed said.
The minutes revealed Bowman also expressed her view that taking action to begin moving the policy rate at a gradual pace toward its neutral level would have proactively hedged against a further weakening in the economy and the risk of damage to the labor market.
With regard to the outlook for rates, the Fed said almost all participants agreed that the Fed was well positioned to respond in a timely way to potential economic developments.
Participants also agreed that monetary policy would be informed by a wide range of incoming data, the economic outlook, and the balance of risks, the Fed said.
The minutes said participants noted that it would take time to have more clarity on the magnitude and persistence of higher tariffs' effects on inflation.
Reports on weekly jobless claims, existing home sales and leading economic indicators may attract attention on Thursday, although activity may be somewhat subdued ahead of Powell's speech on Friday.
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