10-year Treasury yield hits 1.96% with inflation data in focus
The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose to 1.96% on Tuesday, with investors focused on inflation data due out later in the week.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note climbed 4 basis points to 1.96%. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond rose nearly 4 basis point to 2.256%. Yields move inversely to prices and 1 basis point is equal to 0.01%.
The 10-year yield traded as high as 1.97% on Tuesday, its highest level since Nov. 2019.
“This is a global rate backup. … Central banks globally are stepping away from accommodation and that is moving interest rates higher,” Priya Misra, head of global rates strategy at TD Securities, said on “Squawk Box.” “But really the market is dealing now with the twin forms of tightening: the balance sheet as well as rate hikes.”
The U.S. Labor Department is due to release January’s consumer price index data on Thursday.
The reading follows a stronger-than-expected January jobs report, which has led to speculation that the Federal Reserve could be more aggressive when it comes to hiking rates. The inflation data is expected to show that prices rose 0.4% in January, for a 7.2% gain from one year ago.
Guilhem Savry, head of macro and dynamic allocation at Unigestion, said on Tuesday that to “correct its mistake in assessing both the scale and sustainability of the inflation shock, the Fed is now set to normalise its monetary policy by combining tapering, hiking and quantitative tightening in the same year.”
Savry said that while removing its accommodative policy and tightening now makes sense, “the timing and calibration has surprised financial markets and raised the risk of policy mistake.”
Bank of America said on Monday that the Fed could implement seven quarter-percentage-point interest rate hikes in 2022.
On the economic data front, December’s trade deficit came in at $80.7 billion. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones survey were expecting a shortfall of $82.8 billion shortfall.
An auction for 3-year Treasury bonds was held on Tuesday.
— CNBC’s Pippa Stevens contributed to this market report.