Treasuries Close Modestly Higher Following Post-Fed Volatility

(RTTNews) - Treasuries saw considerable volatility following the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement before eventually ending Wednesday's trading modestly higher.

Bond prices finished the day in positive territory after spending the final hour of trading bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, dipped 2.4 basis points to 4.273 percent.

The ten-year yield added to the 4.3 basis points drop seen on Tuesday, pulling back further off the three-month closing high set on Monday.

The higher close by treasuries came after the Fed announced its widely expected decision to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 5.25 to 5.50 percent.

The target range for the federal funds rate has remained unchanged since the Fed raised rates by a quarter point last July.

While the accompanying statement said Fed officials still need "greater confidence" inflation is moving sustainably toward 2 percent before cutting rates, the projections still point to three rate cuts this year.

The latest projections suggest Fed officials expect rates to be lowered to a range of 4.50 to 4.75 percent by the end of 2024.

The interest rate forecast is unchanged from December and points to three quarter point rate cuts over the next nine months.

At the same time, Fed officials raised their forecast for rates at the end of 2025 to a range of 3.75 to 4.0 percent from the range of 3.50 to 3.75 percent forecast in December.

Trading on Thursday may continue to be impacted by reaction to the Fed announcement, while reports on weekly jobless claims, leading economic indicators are existing home sales are also likely to attract attention.