WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Treasuries moved sharply lower during trading on Friday, extending the downward move seen over the two previous sessions.
Bond prices slid firmly into negative territory in morning trading and saw continued weakness throughout the afternoon. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, surged 8.2 basis points to 4.745 percent.
With the upward move seen over the past few sessions, the ten-year yield more than offset the slump seen last Friday and early this week, reaching its highest closing level since early January 2025.
The weakness among treasuries came as the price of crude oil moved sharply higher after Iran claimed it attacked two tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz under U.S. military escort.
U.S. crude oil futures have pulled back well off their highs after surging by as much as 3.4 percent but remain up by more than 1 percent on the day.
Bond traders were also reacting to comments from two of the three Federal Reserve officials that voted to raise interest rates by a quarter point at the monetary policy meeting earlier this week.
In a statement explaining his vote, Minneapolis Fed President Tushar Kashkari noted that inflation has been elevated relative to the central bank's 2 percent target for more than five years.
'If inflation remains elevated, in my view, a potential series of small policy moves would be better than waiting and eventually concluding that even bolder actions were necessary,' Kashkari said.
He added, 'On the other hand, if inflation durably fades, a strategy of small policy steps would allow the FOMC to slow or pause subsequent adjustments without unnecessary impact on the real economy.'
Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack argued in a separate statement that now is the time for the Fed to act to speed the return of inflation to 2 percent.
'The longer that high inflation persists, the more challenging and costly it can be to bring it back down,' Hammack said. 'I preferred to move at our recent meeting because I did not see the current policy stance as appropriately restrictive.'
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