U.S. Treasury yields fell on Thursday morning, as investors digested the latest Federal Reserve meeting minutes and monitored developments on the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note gave up 4 basis points, falling to 2.0015% at 4 a.m. ET. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond moved 4 basis points lower to 2.3211%. Yields move inversely to prices and 1 basis point is equal to 0.01%.
The Fed’s January meeting minutes, released Wednesday afternoon, offered a dovish update from the central bank. The minutes indicated that the Fed would likely start to raise interest rates soon and outlined its plans for shedding the trillions of dollars of bonds off its balance sheet.
Charlie Ripley, senior investment strategist at Allianz Investment Management, said on Wednesday that the Fed minutes indicate a “faster pace of tightening relative to the last hiking cycle is warranted.”
“On balance, there was nothing in the minutes that suggested the Fed would be more aggressive than what the market has already priced in,” he added.
Meanwhile, geopolitical tensions continued to be in focus for investors. NATO officials on Wednesday accused Russia of increasing its number of troops at the Ukrainian border, a day after Moscow claimed it had started to withdraw some of its military units.
In terms of economic data releases due out on Thursday, January’s building permit and housing starts figures are due out at 8:30 a.m. ET.
The number of initial jobless claims filed during the week ended Feb. 12 is also due out at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Auctions are slated to be held on Thursday for $50 billion of 4-week bills, $40 billion of 8-week bills and $9 billion of 30-week Treasury inflation-protected securities.
— CNBC’s Jeff Cox and Chloe Taylor contributed to this market report.
