Treasuries Finish Choppy Trading Day Roughly Flat

(RTTNews) - Following the upward move seen over the two previous sessions, treasuries showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Wednesday.

Bond prices spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before closing roughly flat. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, crept up by less than a basis point to 4.151 percent.

The choppy trading on the day came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of the Labor Department's report on consumer price inflation on Thursday.

The report on consumer price inflation in the month of November could impact the outlook for interest rates.

Economists currently expect consumer prices to rise by 0.3 percent in November, while the annual rate of growth is expected to tick up to 3.1 percent.

Bond traders also continued to digest yesterday's closely watched monthly employment report. While report showed stronger than expected job growth in November, the increase followed a notable loss of jobs in October.

The report said non-farm payroll employment climbed by 64,000 jobs in November after tumbling by 105,000 jobs in October. Economists had expected employment to rise by 50,000 jobs.

The Labor Department also said the unemployment rate rose to 4.6 percent in November, reaching its highest level since hitting 4.7 percent in September 2021.