Bonds

Treasurys pare some losses after Fed minutes

Treasurys


U.S. Treasurys pared losses on Wednesday after minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting showed central bankers pored over data on inflation, financial market volatility and anemic global growth last month, and was left with a muddled picture of what it meant for the U.S. economy.

The Fed's statement after its Oct. 29-29 gathering largely sloughed off a mid-October market meltdown and ebbing growth in other developed economies, with the central bank restating confidence that the U.S. economy would continue to make progress.

Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes were last down 5/32 in price to yield 2.33 percent from 2.32 percent late Tuesday. were down 2/32, yielding 1.62 percent.

U.S. 30-year Treasury bonds were down 6/32 in price, with a yield of 3.05 percent, from 3.04 percent at the close on Tuesday.

Benchmark 10-year note and 30-year bond yields hit session highs earlier after data showed starts for U.S. single-family homes rose for a second straight month in October and overall building permits approached a 6-1/2-year high.

But Craig Dismuke, chief economist at Vining Sparks in Memphis, Tennessee, was not as upbeat on the housing sector, although he noted that the stronger-than-expected permits boded well for next month's housing data.

He said since mortgage rates started to rise last May, almost every housing metric has flat-lined.

"We are on track for home price increases slowing to about 3 percent by year end," Dismuke said. "The Fed has to be cautious to not allow longer-term rates to rise because the housing recovery has stalled with this very small increase in mortgage rates."