Treasuries Close Nearly Flat Following Choppy Trading Day

(RTTNews) - Treasuries showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading session on Wednesday before ending the day roughly flat.

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 less than a basis point to 1.752 percent.

The roughly flat close by treasuries came following the release of the Federal Reserve's Beige Book, a compilation of anecdotal evidence on economic conditions in the twelve Fed districts.

The Beige Book said economic activity continued to expand during the reporting period from late August to early October, with most districts indicating a modest or moderate pace of expansion.

"Labor market conditions remained tight, with modest employment and wage growth noted over the reporting period," the Fed said.

The central bank added, "Most Districts characterized input costs and/or output prices as fairly flat, but prices increased slightly on net."

Traders largely shrugged off a report from the Commerce Department showing that housing starts unexpectedly tumbled to their lowest level in well over a year in September.

The report said housing starts plunged by 9.0 percent to an annual rate of 1.047 million in September after slumping by 5.6 percent to a revised 1.150 million in August.

The continued decline came as a surprise to economists, who had expected housing starts to climb to a rate of 1.180 million from the 1.142 million originally reported for the previous month.

With the unexpected decrease, housing starts dropped to their lowest annual rate since hitting 964,000 in March of 2015.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department also said building permits surged up by 6.3 percent to an annual rate of 1.225 million in September after rising by 0.7 percent to a revised 1.152 million in August.

Building permits, an indicator of future housing demand, had been expected to increase to 1.165 million from the 1.139 million that had been reported for the previous month.

Trading on Thursday may be impacted by some key economic data, including reports on weekly jobless claims, existing home sales, and Philadelphia-area manufacturing activity.