NEW YORK: US Treasury yields were little changed on Thursday, hovering at 1-1/2 week highs as traders awaited a possible breakthrough in the latest round of trade negotiations between China and the United States.
A deal between the world's two biggest economies would remove a concern that has been hanging over financial markets since the two nations imposed tariffs on each other last year.
President Donald Trump will meet Vice Premier Liu He, who is leading the Chinese side, in the talks at the Oval Office at 4:30 p.m. (2030 GMT), the White House said.
"The operative question at this moment in the Treasury market is whether or not any deal eventually reached between Trump and China will be sufficient to reverse the titanic shift which has already occurred on the international trade front," BMO interest rates strategists wrote in a research note.
Global bond yields have risen this week on encouraging economic data, in particular from China.
Data on the United States and Europe, on the other hand, have been mixed, stoking worries over a global economic slowdown.
Earlier Thursday, German industrial orders recorded their steepest decline in over two years in February, while US jobless claims fell to a 49-year low last week.
At 9:54 a.m. (1354 GMT), the yields on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes were 2.519 percent, little changed from Wednesday. They hit a 1-1/2 week peak of 2.528% in the previous session.
On the supply front, the US Treasury Department will announce details on its sales of three-year, 10-year and 30-year bonds next week at 11 a.m. (1500 GMT).
Meanwhile, Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Patrick Harker and Cleveland Fed chief Loretta Mester will speak about the economy at separate events at 1 p.m. (1700 GMT). Neither are voting members of the Federal Open Market Committee in 2019.
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