Treasuries Close Roughly Flat After Seeing Early Strength

(RTTNews) - After moving to the upside early in the session on Wednesday, treasuries gave back ground before ending the day roughly flat.

Bond prices pulled back off their early highs but ended the day slightly higher. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite its price, edged down by less than a basis point to 2.970 percent.

The initial strength among treasuries came following the release of a report from the Labor Department showing a modest decrease in consumer prices in the month of March.

The Labor Department said the consumer price index dipped by 0.1 percent in March after rising by 0.2 percent in February. Economists had expected consumer prices to come in unchanged.

Excluding food and energy prices, core consumer price index rose by 0.2 percent March, matching the increase seen in the previous month. The uptick in core prices matched economist estimates.

Later in the day, the Federal Reserve released the minutes of its latest monetary policy meeting, which showed members of the central bank discussed the need to slow down the economy.

Some member said that "monetary policy eventually would likely gradually move from an accommodative stance to being a neutral or restraining factor for economic activity," the minutes said.

At the March meeting, the Fed raised its benchmark federal-funds rate by a quarter percentage point to between 1.5% and 1.75%.

Trading on Thursday may be impacted by reaction to reports on initial jobless claims and import and export prices.