U.S. Treasury yields were mixed on Tuesday as investors fretted over what could be ahead for interest rates and awaited the latest economic data.
At 5:47 am ET, the yield on the 10-year Treasury was down by over 3 basis points to 4.31%. It had risen as high as 4.35% on Monday, close to levels last seen in 2007. The 2-year Treasury was flat at 4.988%.
Yields and prices have an inverted relationship and one basis point is equivalent to 0.01%.
Investors weighed the outlook for interest rates as they awaited remarks from Federal Reserve officials and fresh economic data.
Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee and Fed Governor Michelle Bowman are among those set to speak on Tuesday. On the data front, existing home sales for July will be released.
That comes ahead of the Fed’s annual Jackson Hole symposium, which runs from Thursday to Saturday, and during which various Fed officials, including Chairman Jerome Powell, are expected to make remarks.
Investors are hoping that the comments from policymakers and latest data will provide clues about what to expect from the economy and what this could mean for interest rates.
Many investors had hoped that the Fed’s last rate increase at its July meeting would mark the end of the central bank’s rate-hiking campaign that began in early March 2022.
However, minutes from the July meeting, mixed messages from policymakers and recent economic data have led to uncertainty about whether rates could go higher still and if rate cuts may come later than expected.
