WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After failing to sustain an early move to the upside, treasuries showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading session on Monday.
Bond prices pulled back off their early highs and spent much of the day lingering near the unchanged line. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, edged down by less than a basis point to 4.986 percent.
The early advance by treasuries partly reflected a significant pullback by the price of crude oil, with U.S. crude oil futures plunging by nearly 3 percent.
However, treasuries gave back ground as crude oil prices climbed well off their lows amid lingering concerns about the conflict in the Middle East.
The choppy trading seen for the rest of the day came as traders looked ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday, with the central bank widely expected to leave rates unchanged.
With a quarter point rate hike still widely expected at the Fed's December meeting, traders are likely to keep a close eye on the accompanying statement.
Meanwhile, the Treasury Department kicked off this week's series of announcements of the results of its long-term securities auctions, revealing this month's auction of $69 billion worth of two-year notes attracted slightly below average demand.
The two-year note auction drew a high yield of 4.708 percent and a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.59, while the ten previous two-year note auctions had an average bid-to-cover ratio of 2.62.
The bid-to-cover ratio is a measure of demand that indicates the amount of bids for each dollar worth of securities being sold.
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