The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield was little changed Friday, as investors monitored the latest developments around the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was marginally higher at 1.977% by around 3:20 p.m. ET. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was little changed at 2.291%. Yields move inversely to prices and 1 basis point is equal to 0.01%.
The 2-year note yield, meanwhile, ticked 2.6 basis points higher to about 1.574%.
Friday’s moves come after a volatile session Thursday across assets, including bonds. The 10-year traded as low as 1.85% on Thursday — pushing prices higher — as traders tried to protect their portfolios by loading up on traditional safe havens such as Treasurys.
The benchmark yield later recovered from those lows, mirroring a stunning reversal seen in the stock market.
Russia attack on Ukraine
Russia is closing in on the capital city of Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said Friday. The capital had been hit by “horrific Russian rocket strikes,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
Later Friday, multiple reports said Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to send a delegation to Belarusian capital Minsk for negotiations with Ukraine.
European Union leaders are discussing imposing sanctions on any European assets held by Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, two sources told CNBC’s Silvia Amaro. It is not clear whether Putin or Lavrov own any significant assets in the EU.
“This is going to be a year where the anticipation of events is worse than the actual event itself, at least in the market,” Liz Young, head of investment strategy at SoFi, told CNBC’s “Fast Money Halftime.”
“Even if some of that conflict de-escalates and we’ve gotten past the most fearful pieces of it,” Young added, “we’re still going back to an environment where we’re waiting for a Fed meeting … we’re waiting for the first hike and we’re waiting for a period when liquidity is coming out of the market.”
Traders are bracing for the Federal Reserve to start tightening its grip on monetary policy next month. According to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, investors are betting the central bank will raise rates by at least a quarter-point after its March meeting.
On the data front, the core personal consumption expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve’s primary inflation gauge, rose 5.2% from a year ago, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expected a 5.1% print.
— CNBC’s Ted Kemp contributed to this market report.
