U.S. Treasury yields were lower on Friday morning, ahead of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s highly anticipated speech at the central bank’s Jackson Hole symposium.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note lost 1 basis point, falling to 1.334% at 8:43 a.m. ET. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond fell nearly 1 basis point to 1.931%. Yields move inversely to prices and 1 basis point equals 0.01%.
Powell is due to speak at this year’s virtual Jackson Hole summit at 10 a.m. ET, with investors watching for any details as to when the Fed might look to taper its easy monetary stimulus.
Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan told CNBC on Thursday that he would like to see central bank announce a winding down of bond purchases in September.
Kaplan said that he was concerned about inflation and “excess risk-taking” that has led to “distortions” in financial markets, particularly in bonds.
Tom Graff, portfolio manager and head of fixed income at Brown Advisory, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Friday that there didn’t seem to be “any benefit from QE (quantitative easing) at this point and (it’s) probably doing some harm in the money market space.”
The Personal Consumption Expenditures index, which shows changes in the prices of goods and services purchased by consumers and is the Fed’s favorite inflation indicator, rose 4.2% in July from the same time last year and 0.4% from the previous month, the Commerce Department reported Friday.
The University of Michigan’s final consumer sentiment data for August is then set to come out at 10 a.m. ET.
— CNBC’s Jeff Cox contributed to this market report.
