WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After moving notably lower over the two previous sessions, treasuries showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Thursday.
Bond prices spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged before eventually closing roughly flat. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, crept up by less than a basis point to 4.101 percent.
The choppy trading in the bond markets came amid another relatively quiet day on the U.S. economic front due to the ongoing government shutdown.
While closely watched data on consumer price inflation was originally scheduled to be released today, most government data has been indefinitely postponed.
The lack of major U.S. economic data along with remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell earlier this week have led to some uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates.
While the Fed lowered interest rates by another quarter point as widely expected on Wednesday, Powell's post-meeting remarks partly offset optimism about another rate cut in December.
Powell said a further reduction in rates in December is 'not a foregone conclusion,' noting Fed officials had 'strongly differing views about how to proceed' at the final meeting of the year.
Following Powell's comments, CME Group's FedWatch Tool indicates the chances the Fed cuts rates by another quarter point in December have tumbled to 62.8 percent from 91.7 percent a week ago.
With the ongoing shutdown likely delaying key U.S. economic data from the government, next week's trading may be impacted by reaction to private reports on manufacturing and service sector activity and private sector employment.
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