Treasuries Close Modestly Lower After Lackluster Session

(RTTNews) - Treasuries showed a lack of direction throughout the trading session on Tuesday before ending the day modestly lower.

Bond prices spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, inched up by 1.3 basis points to 2.239 percent.

The modestly lower close by treasuries came after the Treasury Department's auction of $24 billion worth of three-year notes attracted below average demand.

The three-year note auction drew a high yield of 1.255 percent and a bid-to-cover ratio of 3.14, while the ten previous three-year note auctions had an average bid-to-cover ratio of 3.23.

The bid-to-cover ratio is a measure of demand that indicates the amount of bids for each dollar worth of securities being sold.

Nonetheless, overall trading activity was somewhat subdued amid another day lacking any major U.S. economic data.

The Commerce Department is scheduled to release its report on wholesale inventories in the month of October on Wednesday, although the data does not typically move the markets.

Bond traders are likely to keep a closer eye on the results of the Treasury's auction of $21 billion worth of ten-year notes.