Treasuries Finish Choppy Trading Day Roughly Flat

(RTTNews) - After failing to sustain an early move to the upside, treasuries showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading session on Wednesday.

Bond prices bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before closing roughly flat. The yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, edged down by less than a basis point to 3.462 percent.

The choppy trading on the day came as traders look ahead to the release of some key U.S. economic data in the coming days.

Reports on fourth quarter GDP, durable goods orders and weekly jobless claims are due to be released on Thursday, while reports on personal income and spending and consumer sentiment are due to be released on Friday.

The data could impact the outlook for the economy and interest rates ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting.

Traders largely shrugged off the results of the Treasury Department's auction of $43 billion worth of five-year notes, which attracted well above average demand.

The five-year note auction drew a high yield of 3.530 percent and a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.64, while the ten previous five-year note auctions had an average bid-to-cover ratio of 2.40.

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

On Tuesday, the Treasury revealed this month's auction of $42 billion worth of two-year notes also attracted strong demand.