Treasury yields slip as investors assess impact of China’s Covid policy

U.S. Treasury yields pulled back on Tuesday as investors closely watched Covid developments in China and digested comments from Federal Reserve officials on monetary policy plans.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield was last down by more than 3 basis points to 3.666%. The 2-year Treasury yield was last trading at around 4.438% after dipping by more than 3 basis points.

Yields and prices have an inverted relationship and one basis point is equivalent to 0.01%.

Investors closely followed Covid developments in China as uncertainty about the country’s economic reopening has spread in recent weeks. Rising cases have led to tight restrictions, which people responded to with protests over the weekend.

China on Tuesday said it was making progress with vaccinating its elderly against Covid and reported that cases had declined for the first time in over a week on Monday.

Traders also digested comments from Fed speakers about future interest rate policy, as concerns about a looming recession continue.

Speaking at a virtual event hosted by the Economic Club of New York on Monday, New York Fed president John Williams said the central bank had to continue hiking rates for now. Rate cuts could be an option for 2024, he added.

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard told MarketWatch that the central bank’s benchmark rate needs to rise further and likely remain above 5% throughout the next two years.

On the data front, traders are awaiting key labor market figures, as well as personal spending and income data, which will be released later in the week and could provide further clues about inflation and the state of the U.S. economy.