U.S. government debt yields declined on Wednesday after government consumer prices data reflected tame inflation.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note sat lower at around 2.34 percent at 1:18 p.m. ET, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was lower at 2.791 percent. Bond yields move inversely to prices.
The spread between the 2-year Treasury note and the 10-year Treasury note hit a fresh low of 0.634, its lowest level since Nov. 2007 when the spread closed at 0.5875.
A flattening yield curve sometimes leads to an inversion, whereby the short-end rate would actually go higher than the longer-end yield, implying added risk in the near-term. That is typically viewed as a recession signal, and the flattening curve is a warning of that.
Treasurys
The Labor Department said on Wednesday its Consumer Price Index edged up 0.1 percent last month after jumping 0.5 percent in September. That lowered the year-on-year increase in the CPI to 2.0 percent from 2.2 percent in September.
Excluding volatile food and energy components, consumer prices rose 0.2 percent in October.
Looking to the U.S. central bank, Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren is expected to deliver remarks on the U.S. economic outlook, at Northeastern University's Economic Policy Forum in Boston on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, prior to the market open, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans called for the U.S. central bank to respond by signaling the likelihood of higher inflation ahead, when speaking at a conference in London, Reuters reported.
Elsewhere, the future of a tax reform deal in the U.S. is expected to add uncertainty to markets throughout the trading day, as investors remain on edge over whether a reform will take place during 2017.
On the commodities front, oil prices declined in morning trade after the IEA slashed its outlook for oil demand growth by 100,000 barrels per day for 2017 and 2018.
—CNBC's Gina Francolla and Patti Domm contributed to this report.