US Treasury bond yields fell Thursday morning, despite the recent minutes of the Federal Reserve meeting that the central bank was preparing to curb bond purchases this year.
The benchmark ten-year government bond yield fell nearly 4 basis points to 1.233% at 4 a.m. ET. The yield on the 30-year government bond fell 4 basis points and fell to 1.87%. The returns move inversely to the prices.
Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s monetary policy meeting in July, released on Wednesday, show that central banks are making plans to withdraw their bond purchases before the end of 2021.
“Looking to the future, most participants noted that they believed it might be appropriate to start slowing asset purchases this year, provided the economy performs as expected,” the minutes read .
However, FOMC members stressed that employment did not meet the benchmark set by the Fed for “significant further progress” before considering a rate hike.
John Plassard, deputy director of wealth manager Mirabaud, told CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe on Thursday that he believes FOMC members are “still data dependent”.
Plassard said it was important to remember that the FOMC meeting came before strong US salary numbers were released for July, the latest University of Michigan data showed a “crash” in consumer sentiment and retail sales fell short of expectations .
Plassard said the minutes conveyed a “very mixed message” which he did not like as he expected “more clarity” from FOMC members.
Regarding the dates due Thursday, the Department of Labor will release weekly unemployment claims data at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists polled by Dow Jones estimate a total of 365,000 applications were submitted in the week ending August 14, slightly less than the total of 375,000 the previous week.
Auctions will be held Thursday for $ 35 billion 4-week notes, $ 30 billion 8-week notes and $ 8 billion inflation-linked 30-year government bonds.
– CNBC’s Jeff Cox and Yun Li contributed to this market report.
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