LONDON: US Treasuries were range-bound on Wednesday as the market prepared for more supply and as investors did not expect the Federal Reserve to change its current policy in the last monetary policy meeting before presidential elections.
US 10-year government bond yields were up 1.6 basis points at 1.78 percent, a whisker away from a 200-day moving average at 1.805 percent. Bonds came under pressure after gaining on Tuesday on strong results in a sale of two-year government debt.
The Fed appears intent to stick to its bond-buying stimulus with analysts believing it will wait until at least December to make any changes to its current plans to buy $40 billion of mortgage debt per month.
The Fed unveiled a third round of bond purchases last month.
"All eyes are on the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee), not that anyone is expecting anything dramatic, but they will want to see what their assessment of the economy is," said Marc Ostwald, strategist at Monument Securities.
"The next move, if there is going to be one, is going to be in December."
He expected 10-year bond yields to be in a 1.6 to 1.85 percent range until after the elections on Nov. 6.
"I don't think anyone has got much on going into the meeting. It's going to be a non-event," one trader said.
"The minutes are going to be interesting because they come after the elections."
Markets also prepared for more supply after investors scooped up a record 38.2 percent of the two-year note offering on Tuesday, according to US Treasury data. Later on Wednesday, $35 billion of five-year notes will be on offer, followed by $29 billion of seven-year notes on Thursday.
In the secondary market, five-year government bond yields were up 1.1 basis points at 0.77 percent, while thirty year yields firmed 1.5 bps to 2.92 percent.
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