Treasuries Close Slightly Higher Following Choppy Trading Day

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

Bond prices spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged and finished on an uptick. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, slipped nearly a basis point to 2.099 percent.

The modestly higher close by treasuries came on the heels of the pullback seen late in the previous session following the release of the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting.

The minutes showed that Fed members were concerned about global growth risks and decided it was prudent to wait for additional information before raising interest rates. Combined with recent jobs and trade data, the minutes helped reinforce the view that the Fed will not raise rates later this month and may delay its first rate hike into next year.

Paul Ashworth, Chief U.S. Economist at Capital Economics, said, "Admittedly, there are still two employment reports scheduled for release before the FOMC meets in December."

"But at this stage we think it would take a major turnaround in payroll growth, to well above 200,000 per month, to persuade officials to support a December rate hike," he added.

The choppy trading on Friday came as traders largely shrugged off reports on wholesale trade and import and export prices, which typically do not have much impact on bonds.

Traders may have been looking ahead to next week's reports on retail sales, consumer and producer price inflation, and industrial production.

The Fed is also scheduled to release its Beige Book report, which could shed some additional light on the outlook for interest rates.