Treasuries Close Nearly Unchanged After Recovering From Early Weakness

(RTTNews) - After moving to the downside early in the session, treasuries climbed back near the unchanged line over the course of the trading day on Wednesday.

Bond prices showed a lack of direction in afternoon trading before closing nearly unchanged. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, inched up by less than a basis point to 0.653 percent.

The recovery by treasuries came after the Treasury Department revealed its auction of $29 billion worth of ten-year notes attracted above average demand.

The ten-year note auction drew a high yield of 0.653 percent and a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.62, while the ten previous ten-year note auctions had an average bid-to-cover ratio of 2.46.

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

Trading activity was somewhat subdued, however, with another quiet day on the U.S. economic front keeping some traders on the sidelines.

On Thursday, the Treasury is due to announce the results of this month's auction of $19 billion worth of thirty-year bonds.

Traders are also likely to keep an eye on the Labor Department's weekly jobless claims report, with claims expected to dip to 1.375 million.