Treasuries Move To The Upside After Early Volatility

(RTTNews) - After showing a lack of direction early in the session, treasuries moved to the upside over the course of the trading day on Wednesday.

Bond prices spent the morning bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before moving higher in afternoon trading. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell 4.4 basis points to 4.279 percent.

Treasuries continued to benefit from their appeal as a safe haven amid lingering concerns about the impact of President Donald Trump's trade policies.

Chipmakers Nvidia (NVDA) and ASML (ASML) have warned the impact of the new policies, contributing to a sell-off on Wall Street.

While treasuries sold off in the days after Trump's "reciprocal tariffs" announcement amid speculation of China dumping it holdings, bond prices have moved back to the upside over the past few sessions.

The choppy trading early in the day came as traders digested a slew of U.S. economic data, including a Commerce Department report showing a sharp increase by retail sales in the month of March.

The Commerce Department said retail sales shot up by 1.4 percent in March after inching up by 0.2 percent in February. Economists had expected retail sales to jump by 1.3 percent.

The surge by retail sales partly reflected a significant rebound by sales by motor vehicles and parts dealers, which soared by 5.3 percent in March after tumbling by 1.6 percent in February.

Excluding the sharp increase in auto sales, retail sales rose by 0.5 percent in March after climbing by 0.7 percent in February. Ex-auto sales were expected to rise by 0.3 percent.

Meanwhile, a separate report released by the Federal Reserve showing industrial production decreased by slightly more than expected in March due to a steep drop by utilities output.

The Fed said industrial production fell by 0.3 percent in March after climbing by an upwardly revised 0.8 percent in February.

Economists had expected industrial production to dip by 0.2 percent compared to the 0.7 percent increase originally reported for the previous month.

Trading on Thursday may be impacted by reaction to any developments on the tariff front as well as reports on weekly jobless claims, housing starts and Philadelphia-area manufacturing activity.