10-year Treasury yield climbs to highest level in a week

Treasury yields rose on Tuesday as traders awaited for a key speech from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell later this week.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note gained nearly 4 basis points to 0.695%, its highest level since Aug. 17. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond jumped to 1.410%, its highest level since Aug.20. Yields move inversely to prices.

Investors were monitoring news that the U.S. Trade Representative and Treasury Secretary hold a phone call with the Chinese Vice Premier Monday evening to discuss the state of the U.S.-China phase one trade agreement. 

Furthermore, coronavirus-related development is still on traders' radar. The World Health Organization cautioned Monday against the use of plasma from recovered Covid-19 patients to treat new infections. Their comment came after the United States approved the treatment on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the number of newly confirmed coronavirus infections in the U.S. has dropped. Data compiled by Johns Hopkins University showed new cases fell to under 37,000 and have been below 50,000 since mid-August.

However, the focus for investors this week is on a key speech by Jerome Powell Thursday.

Data on Tuesday showed home prices rose 4.3% annually in June, unchanged from the gain seen in May, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index fell for a second straight month to 84.8 in August, down from 91.7 in July and missing a Dow Jones estimate of 92.5

The Treasury is set to auction $50 billion in 2-year notes.