Treasuries came under pressure over the course of the trading day on Wednesday, extending the pullback seen over the past sessions.
Bond prices moved to the downside in morning trading and remained stuck firmly in negative territory. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, advanced by 5.6 basis points to 1.72 percent.
With the drop on the day, the ten-year yield closed lower for the third straight session after ending last Friday’s trading at its lowest closing level in over two months.
The continued pullback by treasuries was partly due to the release of a report from the National Association of Realtors showing that existing home sales increased by much more than expected in the month of March.
NAR said existing home sales surged up 6.1 percent to an annual rate of 5.19 million in March after rising 1.5 percent to a revised 4.89 million in February. Economists had expected existing home sales to climb to a rate of 5.05 million.
With the bigger than expected increase, existing home sales rose to their highest level since reaching a matching rate in September of 2013.
However, Rob Carnell, chief international economist at ING, said the data will have a “fairly marginal” impact on the Federal Reserve’s decision regarding interest rates.
Economic data may also attract some attention on Thursday, with traders likely to keep an eye on reports on weekly jobless claims and new home sales.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com