NEW YORK: US Treasury prices were little changed on Wednesday after paring steep losses sustained in the last few sessions, as investors looked to President Donald Trump's announcement on tax reform later in the day, with some market participants remaining skeptical that it can get done.
However yields, which move inversely to prices, continued at two-week highs across the curve for a third straight session.
All week, details of the tax overhaul package have come out and so the positive surprise element from the announcement has been diminished.
On Wednesday, administration officials said Trump will release a tax plan that proposes to slash business taxes and steeply discount the rate on corporate profits brought back into the United States.
Investors are now focused on whether these reforms would push through especially in the wake of the earlier debacle on healthcare legislation.
"Yesterday afternoon, the broad strokes of the tax reform have been leaked so I don't think there's a ton new from (Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin) this afternoon, but there's always a chance," said Guy Lebas, chief fixed income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia.
"There's no guarantee though that this gets down. The market has a certain degree of skepticism."
The market is also awaiting a $34 billion US 5-year note auction.
Aaron Kohli, rates strategist at BMO Capital Markets in New York, said the auction could fetch a yield slightly higher than expected given that the note has become relatively expensive heading into the sale.
"On the positive side, flows into the sector are at the upper end of recent ranges and the unwinding of Trumponomics has provided some reasons to own the belly in the longer run," he added.
In mid-morning trading, benchmark 10-year notes  were flat in price to yield 2.328 percent, compared with 2.329 percent late on Tuesday. Yields hit a fresh two-week high of 2.35 percent earlier.
US 30-year bond  prices were slightly up in price, yielding 2.977 percent, down from Monday's 2.979 percent.
On the front end, US two-year yields were at 1.285 percent, from Monday's 1.286 percent.
Ahead of the auction, US five-year notes yielded 1.853 percent, little changes from 1.85 percent late on Monday.
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