WASHINGTON
(dpa-AFX) - After turning lower over the course of the previous session, treasuries showed a strong move back to the upside during trading on Wednesday.
Bond prices moved steadily higher throughout much of the session before closing firmly in positive territory. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, slid 6 basis points to 1.875 percent.
The strength among treasuries partly reflected weakness that emerged on Wall Street, with stocks pulling back off their recent highs.
Treasuries also benefited from a sharp drop by the price of crude oil, which came under pressure following the release of data showing a jump in stockpiles.
After edging down $0.07 to $41.45 a barrel in the previous session, crude oil for May delivery tumbled $1.66 to $39.79 a barrel.
The steep drop in oil prices came following the release of a report from the Energy Information Administration showing a much bigger than expected increase in weekly crude oil inventories.
The EIA said crude oil inventories surged up by 9.4 million barrels in the week ended March 18th, reaching historically high levels for this time of year. Economists had expected an increase of about 3.1 million barrels.
While the report also said distillate fuel inventories edged up by 0.9 million barrels last week, gasoline inventories slumped by 4.6 million barrels.
In
U.S.
economic news, the
Commerce Department released a report this morning showing a rebound in new home sales in the month of February.
The report said new home sales rose 2.0 percent to an annual rate of 512,000 in February after tumbling 7.0 percent to a revised rate of 502,000 in January.
Economists had expected new home sales to climb 3.2 percent to a rate of 510,000 from the 494,000 originally reported for the previous month.
On Thursday, trading may be impacted by reaction to a pair of economic reports on durable goods orders and weekly jobless claims.
Trading activity may be somewhat subdued, however, as some traders may look to get a head start on the long Easter weekend.
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Source: Equities.com News
(March 23, 2016 - 7:29 AM EDT)
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