U.S. Treasury yields climbed on Friday morning, ahead of the release of the March producer price index, which measures wholesale price inflation.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.666% at 3:30 a.m. ET. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond advanced to 2.343%. Yields move inversely to prices.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is set publish the March PPI data at 8:30 a.m. ET on Friday. It measures the changes in underlying U.S. producer prices.
Yields rebounded in early trading after falling in the previous session following dovish comments on the economy from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. He called the recovery from the pandemic “uneven” on Thursday, signaling a more robust recovery is needed.
“The recovery remains uneven and incomplete,” Powell said Thursday in a virtual event presented by the International Monetary Fund and moderated by CNBC’s Sara Eisen. “This unevenness that we’re talking about is a very serious issue.”
Treasury yields have been rapidly moving higher recently over concerns about inflation, amid the economic recovery from the coronavirus. However, the Federal Reserve has said it will let inflation run hotter if this helps achieve full employment.
Janet Mui, investment director at Brewin Dolphin, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Europe” Friday that while the Fed had factored in inflation trending higher, the key would be to watch whether this continues through the end of the year and into 2022.
If that did happen, Mui believed the Fed could become “more concerned.” However, if fears are based solely on stronger economic data — and actual inflation is not sustained — she didn’t believe it would be a worry for the central bank.
There are no auctions scheduled to be held Friday.
— CNBC’s Maggie Fitzgerald contributed to this report.
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