U.S. Treasury yields fell on Thursday in the wake of Wednesday’s Federal Reserve meeting that indicated the possibility of easier monetary policy later this year.
What are Treasurys doing?
The 10-year Treasury note yield TMUBMUSD10Y, -0.64% was down 1.4 basis points to 2.013%, falling as low as 1.977% overnight, while the 2-year note rate TMUBMUSD02Y, -0.97% slipped 4.4 basis points to 1.722%. The 30-year bond yield TMUBMUSD30Y, -0.23% fell 0.9 basis point to 2.531%. Bond prices move in the opposite direction of yields.
What’s driving Treasurys?
Bond yields have made a remarkable journey from the start of the year as expectations for the Federal Reserve to carry out rate more interest rate hikes swiftly turned into hopes for cuts, sending the benchmark 10-year yield to the lowest level since November 2016.
The U.S. central bank appeared to open the door to rate cuts later this year after its policy statement removed the word “patience.” Analysts also keyed into the Fed’s interest-rate projections, or “dot plot”, which showed seven members of the Federal Open Market Committee forecast two rate decreases before the end of the year.
The Fed has come under attack from the White House for not loosening monetary policy this year. News reports say President Donald Trump has looked into the legality of ousting Fed Chairman Jerome Powell from his role as the head of the U.S. central bank.
See: What the Fed’s Latest Move Means for Investors
What did market participants’ say?
“Chair Powell introduced an “easing policy bias” as he “will closely monitor the implications of incoming data” – preparing markets for a possible twenty-five bps short-end interest rate cut at the July Meeting and a follow-up of twenty-five bps rate cut at the September Meeting,” wrote John Herrmann, a rates-strategist at MUFG Securities.
What else is on investors’ radar?
In economic data, weekly jobless claims and the June’s Philadelphia Fed index is set for release at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.
The Bank of England voted to keep rates at 0.75%, but members of its Monetary Policy Committee said the U.K. central bank should eventually tighten policy in the coming years.