Treasuries Close Roughly Flat Following Fed's Beige Book

(RTTNews) - After seeing modest weakness for much of the trading session on Wednesday, treasuries moved to the upside going into the close to end the day roughly flat.

Bond prices moved higher in the final hour of trading but buying interest remained subdued. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, inched up by less than a basis point to 2.287 percent.

The roughly flat close by treasuries came following the release of the Federal Reserve's Beige Book, a compilation of anecdotal evidence on economic conditions in the twelve Fed districts.

While the Beige Book said U.S. economic activity continued to expand in October and November, the report also said overall price and wage inflation remained subdued.

The information in the Beige Book will be used by the Fed to determine any changes to monetary policy at the Federal Open Market Committee meeting later this month.

The modest weakness shown by treasuries earlier in the session came on the heels of the release of a mixed batch of economic data.

Early in the day, payroll processor ADP released a report showing that private sector job growth fell short of economist estimates in November.

ADP said private sector employment rose by 208,000 jobs in November, while economists had been expecting an increase of about 225,000 jobs.

Meanwhile, the Institute for Supply Management released a separate report showing much faster than expected growth in U.S. service sector activity.

The ISM said its non-manufacturing index jumped to 59.3 in November from 57.1 in October, with a reading above 50 indicating growth in the service sector. Economists had expected the index to inch up to 57.5.

Thursday's trading may be impacted by reaction to the weekly jobless claims report, although activity is likely to be somewhat subdued ahead of the release of the monthly jobs data on Friday.