NEW YORK: US Treasuries prices eased on Tuesday as global equities markets rose and as investors awaited the results of a U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers' meeting that could move markets.
Prices of 10-year Treasury notes were last off 6/32, after narrowing deeper losses, and were yielding 2.28 percent. The 10-year yield closed at 2.266 percent on Monday.
"The market is waiting on the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee)," said Wilmer Stith, fixed income portfolio manager at Wilmington Trust in Baltimore, Maryland. "We are on pins and needles about whether they will make changes."
Fed Chair Janet Yellen and other U.S. central bank policymakers were scheduled on Tuesday to begin a two-day meeting and will issue a policy statement on Wednesday.
Analysts predict the FOMC will try to soothe recent market volatility by reinforcing the message that while the Fed is winding up its stimulus program it could wait quite a while before raising historically low U.S. interest rates.
"I think it will be steady as she goes," Stith said.
Treasury yields, which move in the opposite direction to prices, had been higher in earlier trading, in part because stock prices and yields on German bunds and other sovereign debt in Europe were rising, he said.
The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 45 nations, was up 0.72 percent on Tuesday. Wall Street prices were also ahead in early trading.
Treasuries price declines narrowed after the U.S. Commerce Department reported a surprising and sharp drop in September of new orders for capital goods by U.S. businesses. It was the biggest slide in orders since January.
Non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, fell 1.7 percent last month, according to the government.
The decline confounded Wall Street's expectations for a 0.6 percent increase and was at odds with business surveys, which show improving business appetite for capital investment.
"This was a disappointing report, and it does suggest that the contribution from this segment of the economy to GDP will be slightly less than previously thought," TD Securities strategist Millan Mulraine told clients.
The yield on the 30-year bond last stood at 3.061 percent on a price decline of 16/32. It had yielded as much as 3.068 percent in earlier trading.
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