Ten-Year Yield Climbs To Nearly Three-Month Closing High

(RTTNews) - Extending the downward trend seen over the past several sessions, treasuries saw moderate weakness during trading on Wednesday.

Bond prices regained some ground after an early slump but moved back to the downside as the day progressed. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, rose 3.8 basis points to 4.242 percent.

The ten-year yield closed higher for the fourth time in the past five sessions, reaching its highest closing level in almost three months.

The continued weakness among treasuries came amid ongoing concerns the Federal Reserve will not lower interest rates as quickly as previously estimated.

While the Fed is still widely expected to lower interest rates by a quarter point next month, there is increasing skepticism about another rate cut in December.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool suggests the chances the Fed will leave rates unchanged in December have jumped to 30.2 percent from just 13.9 percent a week ago.

In U.S. economic news, a report released by the National Association of Realtors unexpectedly showed a continued decrease by existing home sales in the U.S. in the month of September.

NAR said existing home sales slid by 1.0 percent to an annual rate of 3.84 million in September after tumbling by 2.0 percent to a revised rate of 3.88 million in August.

Economists had expected existing home sales to increase by 1.0 percent to a rate of 3.90 million from the 3.86 million originally reported for the previous month.

Trading on Thursday may be impacted by reaction to the latest U.S. economic data, including reports on weekly jobless claims and new home sales.