U.S. Treasury yields fell slightly to start the week on Monday as investors readied for the Federal Reserve’s December policy meeting.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dipped 1.9 basis points to 1.47% at around 7:15 a.m. ET. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond gave up 2.5 basis points at 1.859%. Yields move inversely to prices and 1 basis point is equal to 0.01%.
Investors continue to monitor for updates on the highly mutated omicron Covid variant. Markets bounced back last week from a sell-off triggered by fears over the variant, with the S&P 500 notching its best week since February.
Sentiment was lifted by news from Pfizer and BioNTech that a study found three doses of their vaccine provide a high level of protection against the variant.
As at Sunday, the U.S. was approaching 800,000 coronavirus-related deaths. The new variant has pushed some government officials to reinstate health restrictions to slow the spread.
Investors also continued to digest Friday’s hotter inflation report, which came in at 6.8% in November year-over-year for the biggest surge since 1982. The print was slightly higher than the 6.7% Dow Jones estimate.
Investor focus will likely be on the Fed’s latest two-day policy meeting, which kicks off on Tuesday. After the meeting wraps up on Wednesday, the Fed is expected to announce that it will speed up the pace of tapering its asset purchasing program.
Auctions are due to be held on Monday for $57 billion of 13-week bills and $51 billion of 26-week bills.
No major economic data releases are due out on Monday.
— CNBC’s Yun Li contributed to this market report.
