Treasuries Close Modestly Higher After Early Volatility

(RTTNews) - After seeing considerable volatility early in the session, treasuries moved modestly higher over the course of the trading day on Tuesday.

Bond prices hovered in positive territory in afternoon trading after spending the morning swinging back and forth across the unchanged line.

Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, slipped 1.4 basis points to 4.328 percent.

The modestly higher close by treasuries may have reflected bargain hunting after recent weakness drove the ten-year yield to its highest levels in over fifteen years.

Buying interest remained relatively subdued, however, as traders continued to look ahead to the economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, later this week.

The symposium will feature meetings by global central bank leaders as well as a speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that could impact the outlook for interest rates.

On the U.S. economic front, the National Association of Realtors released a report showing existing home sales in the U.S. slumped by much more than expected in the month of July.

NAR said existing home sales tumbled by 2.2 percent to an annual rate of 4.07 million in July after plunging by 3.3 percent to an annual rate of 4.16 million in June. Economists had expected existing home sales to edge down to an annual rate of 4.15 million.

Existing home sales decreased for the fourth time in the past five months, falling to their lowest annual rate since hitting 4.00 million in January.

Trading activity is likely to remain light on Wednesday ahead of the Jackson Hole summit, although a report on new home sales may attract some attention.