U.S. government debt yields inched lower on Wednesday after President Donald Trump's administration sparked a new wave of international trade fears upon announcing a new list of new Chinese tariffs.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was lower at around 2.84 percent at 5:19 p.m. ET, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond down at 2.942 percent. Bond yields move inversely to prices.
Treasurys
Trade anxieties ramped up again across markets Wednesday, after President Donald Trump and his administration published late Tuesday a list of 10 percent duties on $200 billion worth in Chinese goods.
The tariffs won’t come into effect immediately, but rather face a two-month review, with hearings taking place in mid-to-late August. The announcement came less than a week after both nations imposed $34 billion worth of tariffs on each other.
Trump is currently in Brussels attending a two-day NATO summit. During the first leg of his European trip, the U.S. incumbent has already made headlines by stating that “Germany is totally controlled by Russia,” describing how a number of “inappropriate” oil and gas deals had given Moscow too much influence over Berlin.
U.S. producer prices increased slightly more than expected in June between gains in the cost of services and motor vehicles, leading to their largest annual increase in more than six years.
The Labor Department said Wednesday its producer price index for final demand climbed 0.3 percent last month, which also caught a bid thanks to rising gasoline prices. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the PPI gaining 0.2 percent in June and rising 3.2 percent year-on-year.
A key gauge of underlying producer price pressures that excludes food, energy and trade services rose 0.3 percent last month. The so-called core PPI edged up 0.1 percent in May.
—CNBC’s Sam Meredith contributed to this report