WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Treasuries showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading session before eventually ending the day slightly lower.
Bond prices closed in negative territory after spending the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, inched up by 1.0 basis point to 4.133 percent.
Treasuries moved to the downside late in the session after the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting revealed officials had mixed views about the outlook for interest rates.
The minutes of the Fed's October 28-29 meeting said participants expressed 'strongly differing views' about what policy decision would most likely be appropriate at the central bank's next meeting on December 9-10.
While the Fed said most participants agreed that it would be appropriate to eventually lower rates, several indicated that they did not necessarily view another 25 basis point rate cut as likely to be appropriate at the December meeting.
Others assessed that a further lowering of rates could be appropriate in December if the economy evolved about as they expected, although 'many participants' suggested that it would likely be appropriate to keep the rates unchanged for the rest of the year, the Fed said.
During his post-meeting remarks, Fed Chair Jerome Powell's 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.
CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating a 29.6 percent chance the Fed will lower rates by another quarter point in December, down sharply from 93.7 percent a month ago.
The mixed views about the outlook for the December meeting came as Fed officials were also divided about whether to cut rates at the October meeting.
'Many participants were in favor of lowering the target range for the federal funds rate at this meeting, some supported such a decision but could have also supported maintaining the level of the target range, and several were against lowering the target range,' the Fed said.
Trading on Thursday may be impacted by reaction to the September jobs report, which was delayed for several weeks due to the government shutdown.
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