Treasuries Close Slightly Lower After Choppy Trading Day

(RTTNews) - Treasuries fluctuated over the course of the trading session on Tuesday before eventually ending the day modestly lower.

Bond prices spent much of the day lingering near the unchanged line. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, inched up by just one basis point to 1.783 percent.

The choppy trading experienced by treasuries was partly due to volatility on Wall Street, where the major averages moved in opposite directions.

While the Dow and the S&P 500 reached their best intraday levels in several months, the Nasdaq pulled back into negative territory.

Traders also kept an eye on the price of crude oil, which extended the substantial rebound off yesterday's early lows.

Crude oil for May delivery jumped $1.30 to $41.08 a barrel, as an oil workers strike has slashed production in Kuwait.

On the U.S. economic front, the Commerce Department released a report this morning showing a sharp pullback in housing starts in the month of March.

The report said housing starts tumbled by 8.8 percent to an annual rate of 1.089 million in March after jumping by 6.9 percent to a revised 1.194 million in February.

Economists had expected housing starts to dip by about 0.9 percent to a rate of 1.167 million compared to the 1.178 million originally reported for the previous month.

Building permits, an indicator of future housing demand, also slumped by 7.7 percent to a rate of 1.086 million in March from a revised 1.177 million in February.

The decrease surprised economists, who had expected building permits to climb 2.8 percent to a rate of 1.200 million from the 1.167 originally reported for the previous month.

Additional housing data is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, with the National Association of Realtors due to release its report on existing home sales in March.