Treasuries Finish Choppy Trading Day Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - Treasuries moved modestly lower over the course of the trading session on Tuesday, extending the downward trend seen over the past few days.

Bond prices showed a lack of direction throughout much of the day before eventually closing in negative territory. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, rose 1.4 basis points to 4.186 percent.

With the uptick on the day, the ten-year yield reached its highest closing level in over two months.

The modest weakness among treasuries came after the Labor Department released a report showing job openings in the U.S. edged slightly higher in the month of October.

The Labor Department said job openings crept up to 7.670 million in October from 7.658 million in September.

"The data is unlikely to prevent the Federal Reserve from following through with a rate cut later this week, but it does support our assumption that officials will opt for an extended pause due to signs of labor market stabilization," said Matthew Martin, Senior US Economist at Oxford Economics.

Traders were also looking ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

While the Fed is widely expected to lower interest rates by another quarter point, there is considerable uncertainty about the longer-term outlook for rates.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating an 89.6 percent chance the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point on Wednesday but a 70.3 percent chance the central bank will leave rates unchanged in January.

Traders are likely to pay close attention to the wording of the Fed's accompanying statement as well as Fed Chair Jerome Powell's post-meeting press conference for clues about the likelihood of further rate cuts.