Long-term US yields fall slightly as White House and Senate strike virus deal

Long-term U.S. debt yields dipped on Wednesday after White House and Senate leaders reached a deal on a $2-trillion coronavirus stimulus bill.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell 3 basis points to at around 0.79%, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond traded 4 basis points lower at 1.33% as investors applauded Congress's mammoth rescue package. Bond yields rise as their prices fall.

Yields on both the one-month and three-month Treasury bills fell below zero Wednesday, trading at -0.01% and -0.02%, respectively, a week and a half after the Federal Reserve cuts its benchmark rate to near-zero.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tweeted in the early hours of Wednesday that the Senate had reached a bipartisan agreement on the historic funding bill intended to cushion the economic blow from the coronavirus pandemic, with a vote scheduled later today.

The congressional accord follows historic action from the Federal Reserve, which has in recent weeks embarked on a massive liquidity program and moved to support debt markets with no-interest loans. 

BlackRock Chief Investment Officer of Global Fixed Income Rick Rieder told CNBC on Wednesday that such measures are without precedent and have to some extent worked to calm markets.

"What the Fed's doing is immense. I mean the Fed is putting — I don't even know what bigger than a bazooka is — I mean that ... size they're putting into the market is extraordinary," he said. "The liquidity they were putting in at $60 billion a month was incredible. Now we're talking about $75 billion a day." 

Confirmed cases of the virus have now surpassed 55,000 in the U.S., more than ten times higher than a week ago, and resulted in more than 800 deaths.

However, Tuesday saw the biggest rally on Wall Street since 1933 as investors flocked back into stocks on hopes that the relief bill would be imminent and that the market capitulation had found its bottom.