Treasuries Close Modestly Higher After Ten-Year Note Auction

(RTTNews) - Treasuries moved moderately higher over the course of the trading session on Wednesday after initially showing a lack of direction.

Bond prices lingered near the unchanged line in morning trading before moving to the upside in the afternoon. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, dipped 2.3 basis points to 1.737 percent.

With the modest decrease on the day, the ten-year yield ended the session at its lowest closing level in a month.

The strength that emerged among treasuries came in reaction to the Treasury Department's auction of $23 billion worth of ten-year notes, which attracted slightly above average demand.

The ten-year note drew a high yield of 1.710 percent and a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.68, while the ten previous ten-year note auctions had an average bid-to-cover ratio of 2.62.

The bid-to-cover ratio is a measure of demand that indicates the amount of bids for each dollar worth of securities being sold.

On Thursday, the Treasury is due to finish off this week's series of long-term securities auctions with the sale of $15 billion worth of thirty-year bonds.

Following several quiet days on the U.S. economic front, trading on Thursday may also be impacted by reports on weekly jobless claims and import and export prices.