Bonds

Treasury yields hold steady after Fed leaves interest rates near zero

U.S. Treasury yields were little changed on Thursday after the Federal Reserve kept interest rate unchanged near zero.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note traded near the flat line at 0.766%, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was also flat at 1.537%. Yields move inversely to prices.

Treasurys


The central bank held its benchmark interest rate anchored in a range between 0%-0.25%, saying economic conditions remain well below pre-pandemic levels.

During a post-meeting press conference, Chairman Jerome Powell said he thinks the Fed still has plenty it can do to help the recovery.

"Is monetary policy out of power or out of ammunition? The answer to that is no, I don't think that," Powell said. "I think that we're strongly committed to using these powerful tools that we have to support the economy during this difficult time for as long as needed and no one should have any doubt about that."

Investors continue to monitor the presidential race with incoming results yet to determine which candidate would win the election. Both the incumbent Republican President Donald Trump and Democrat challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, still had paths to gaining the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the White House.

Late Wednesday, NBC News projected that Biden was the winner in Wisconsin and Michigan, flipping them as states that Trump had won in the 2016 election. NBC News projections show Biden could need just 17 electoral college votes to win the race.

However, the Trump campaign and the Georgia Republican party filed a lawsuit Wednesday over the counting of absentee ballots in a Georgia county. This came after the campaign also filed suits to halt counting in Michigan and Pennsylvania as well.

The U.S. also saw a record number of new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, with confirmed infections topping the 100,000 mark for the first time, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

On the data front, a total of 751,000 U.S. workers filed for benefits last week, compared to 758,000 from the week before, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting 741,000. This was the third straight week that claims were below 800,000.

Auctions will be held Thursday for $30 billion worth of four-week bills and $35 billion of eight-week bills.

— CNBC's Lauren Feiner contributed to this story.