Treasuries Give Back Ground Amid Lingering Interest Rate Concerns

(RTTNews) - After moving notably higher over the two previous sessions, treasuries gave back some ground during trading on Friday.

Bond prices moved to the downside in early trading and remained in negative territory throughout the day. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, climbed 4.1 basis points to 3.769 percent.

The pullback by treasuries may have reflected concerns about the outlook for interest rates after the Federal Reserve signaled on Wednesday that it plans to continue raising rates later this year.

Treasuries fell to their lows of the session after the University of Michigan released a report showing a bigger than expected improvement in U.S. consumer sentiment in the month of June.

The University of Michigan said is consumer sentiment index climbed to 63.9 in June from 59.2 in May. Economists had expected in the index to inch up to 60.0.

However, the report also showed a significant decrease in year-ahead inflation expectations, which tumbled to 3.3 percent in June from 4.2 percent in May, hitting the lowest level since March 2021.

Five-year inflation expectations edged down to 3.0 percent in June from 3.1 percent in May, again staying within the narrow 2.9-3.1 percent range for 22 of the last 23 months.

The decrease in inflation expectations may add to recent investor optimism that the Federal Reserve won't follow through on its plan to continue raising interest rates.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently pointing to just one quarter point rate hike by the end of the year compared to the two forecast by the Fed.

Following the Juneteenth holiday weekend, next week's trading may be impacted by reaction to some key housing data as well as speeches by several Fed officials.