U.S. Treasury yields were calm early on Wednesday, despite an anticipated jump in inflation, with data tracking price growth in April due out later in the morning.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was little changed at 1.622% shortly after 8 a.m. ET. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond dropped to 2.34%. Yields move inversely to prices.
April’s consumer price index is due out at 8:30 a.m. ET, with it expected to have grown 0.2% on the previous month, representing a 3.6% jump since last year, according to Dow Jones estimates. This jump in the headline CPI would be the largest since Sept. 2011.
CPI excluding food and energy is expected to rise 0.3% in April and 2.3% over the past 12-months.
CPI rose 0.6% in March from the previous month and 2.6% from a year ago, according to the Department of Labor.
Rising inflation has been a growing concern for investors, though Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has said any increase in prices should be transitory.
Jonathan Bell, chief investment officer at Stanhope Capital, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday that the Fed would say much of the expected jump in inflation is actually just “base effects,” which is comparing it to the lower prices seen in the past year amid the pandemic.
And while Bell did acknowledge the presence of base effects, he argued that “still the underlying inflationary pressures are going to be there over the summer months.”
Meanwhile, Fed Vice Chair Richard Clarida is due to make a speech on U.S. economic outlook and monetary policy at the National Association for Business Economics International Symposium at 9 a.m. ET.
Auctions are scheduled to be held Wednesday for $35 billion of 119-day bills and $41 billion of 10-year notes.
— CNBC’s Maggie Fitzgerald contributed to this market report.
