Treasuries Regain Ground After Inflation Data, Trump Denies Plans To Fire Powell

(RTTNews) - Treasuries moved to the upside during trading on Wednesday, regaining ground after moving notably lower in the previous session.

Bond prices fluctuated over the course of the session but largely maintained a positive. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell 3.4 basis points to 4.455 percent.

With the pullback, the ten-year yield gave back ground after ending Tuesday's session at its highest closing level in over a month.

Treasuries moved higher early in the session following the release of a Labor Department report showing producer prices in the U.S. unexpectedly came in flat in the month of June.

The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand was unchanged in June after rising by an upwardly revised 0.3 percent in May.

Economists had expected producer prices to increase by 0.2 percent compared to the 0.1 percent uptick originally reported for the previous month.

The report also said the annual rate of producer price growth slowed to 2.3 percent in June from an upwardly revised 2.7 percent in May.

The annual rate of producer price growth was expected to edge down to 2.5 percent from the 2.6 percent originally reported for the previous month.

The data helped ease inflation concerns, although the Federal Reserve is still seen as likely to leave interest rates unchanged until September at the earliest.

Treasuries gave back ground following reports President Donald Trump discussed the possibility of firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell during a meeting with House Republicans.

However, bonds moved back to the upside after Trump said he's "not planning" on firing Powell, adding, "I think it's highly unlikely, unless he has to leave for fraud."

Trading on Thursday may be impacted by reaction to an avalanche of U.S. economic data, including reports on retail sales and weekly jobless claims.