Treasuries Close Nearly Flat Following Choppy Trading Day

(RTTNews) - Treasuries showed a lack of direction throughout the trading day on Friday before eventually ending the session nearly flat.

Bond prices spent much of the session bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, edged down by less than a basis point to 2.403 percent.

The lackluster performance by treasuries came on the heels of Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's speech at the Kansas City Fed's economic policy symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Yellen's remarks did not provide any meaningful hints about the outlook for interest rates and largely focused on the difficulty in judging the remaining degree of slack in the labor market.

The Fed chief concluded her remarks by acknowledging that the central bank could go either way with regard to interest rates.

While Yellen said an increase in rates could come sooner than expected if progress on inflation and the labor market occurs more rapidly than anticipated, she also said the future path of rates could be more accommodative if the economic performance turns out to be disappointing.

Peter Boockvar, managing director at the Lindsey Group, said, "Bottom line, the speech was an academic discussion that was a non-event in terms of gleaning any clues to when future policy moves, past the end of QE, will occur."

Meanwhile, traders also kept an eye on developments overseas amid news that Russia sent a humanitarian aid convoy into eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine has claimed that the move violates an agreement between the two countries and described the convoy as an invasion.

Next week's trading could be impacted by the release of a slew of key U.S. economic data, including reports on new home sales, durable goods orders, and personal income and spending.

Bond traders are also likely to keep an eye on the results of the Treasury Department's auctions of two-year, five-year, and seven-year notes.

The Treasury is due to sell $29 billion worth of two-year notes next Tuesday, $35 billion worth of five-year notes next Wednesday and $29 billion worth of seven-year notes next Thursday.