Bonds

US Treasurys fall as Fed's Rosengren raises rate hike fears

Traders in the 10-year bond options pit at the Chicago Board of Trade signal orders.
Frank Polich | Reuters

U.S. government debt prices fell on Friday as a speech from a key Federal Reserve official sparked concerns the central bank may raise rates sooner rather than later.

Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren said in a speech low interest rates are increasing the chance of overheating the U.S. economy. Gradually tightening monetary policy is appropriate to maintaining full employment, he added.

"This is important because here we have is a voting member, a dove and someone that is calling for a rate hike even after the recent string of weak economic data," said Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at The Lindsey Group.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note sat higher at 1.6723 percent, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was also higher, at 2.3943 percent. The yields on the and notes were also higher.

Treasurys


Yields across the globe also rose, with the 10-year German bund yield briefly trading positive, according to TradeWeb. Boockvar said that the "air is seeping out of the epic global bond bubble that may have saw its final blow off right after Brexit."

He explained that this started last month when the Bank of Japan "started buying less longer term debt over worries with what they were doing to the yield curve." Boockvar also said that the European Central Bank is "running out of bonds to buy and even if they expand, they will clearly be stretching."

Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo told CNBC he wanted to see more evidence of inflation before the central bank moved rates higher.

There is also an appearance by Dallas Fed President Rob Kaplan at the Mission Capital conference in Austin scheduled for Friday. Kaplan also speaks in the evening at the Dallas Security Traders Association convention.

U.S. crude settled down 3.65 percent or $1.74 at $45.88 a barrel.

Wholesale trade data for July showed inventories remained unchanged, while sales fell 0.4 percent.

— CNBC's Patti Domm contributed to this report