Treasuries Extend Upward Move Ahead Of Fed Announcement

(RTTNews) - Extending the upward move seen in the previous session, treasuries moved moderately higher during trading on Tuesday.

Bond prices moved to the upside in early trading and remained firmly positive throughout the session. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell by 3 basis points to 2.028 percent.

The strength among treasuries came as traders continued to look ahead to the Federal Reserve's highly anticipated monetary policy announcement due Wednesday afternoon.

The Fed is widely expected to hold off on raising interest rates, but traders will be paying close attention to any signals regarding a rate hike in December.

Treasuries may also have benefited from some disappointing economic news, including a report from the Commerce Department showing a continued decrease in durable goods orders in the month of September.

The report said durable goods orders slid by 1.2 percent in September following a revised 3.0 percent decrease in August.

Excluding a continued decrease in orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders fell by a more modest 0.4 percent in September after declining by 0.9 percent in August.

A separate report from the Conference Board also showed a sharp pullback in U.S. consumer confidence in the month of October.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index tumbled to 97.6 in October from a downwardly revised 102.6 in September.

The Fed announcement due at 2 pm ET on Wednesday is likely to overshadow a report on international trade as well as the results of a five-year note auction.