The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield ticked lower on Tuesday as investors weighed the previous day’s data points and looked ahead to key inflation figures later in the week.
The benchmark rate was down by slightly more than 1 basis point at 4.238%. The yield on the 2-year Treasury yield was less than 1 basis point higher at 4.593%.
Yields and prices move in opposite directions and one basis point equals 0.01%.
Tuesday’s moves come as investors continue to assess the strength of the U.S. economy, when the Federal Reserve might start to cut interest rates — and how many times it could do so this year.
Economic data released Tuesday showed that orders for long-lasting goods in the U.S. rose by 1.4% last month, higher than the 0.8% rise economists had anticipated, according to StreetAccount. However, the latest consumer confidence index surprised economists’ expectations to the downside, indicating that optimism in the U.S. economy waned in March.
The latest reading of the Fed’s favorite inflation gauge, the personal consumption expenditures price index, is due to be released Friday and will be closely watched by markets.
Last week, the central bank indicated that rates will fall this year, although Chairman Jerome Powell stressed that the economic outlook remains uncertain. The number of cuts is also somewhat up in the air, with the Fed maintaining that there will be three cuts this year, but Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic saying he now expects just one rate reduction.
Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid said in a note Tuesday that recent comments “underlined the upward narrowing of end-2024 rate expectations we saw in the FOMC dot plot last week (even as the median dot was unchanged at three cuts).”
