Treasury yields rose sharply across the board on Wednesday as concerns over a recession spread among investors, with the benchmark yield hitting its highest level since 2008.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.127%, up by about 13 basis points after hovering just below the key 4% level for much of Tuesday. It rose as high as 4.136% during the session, its highest level since July 23, 2008.
The policy-sensitive 2-year Treasury yield rose by 11 basis points to 4.55%.
Yields and prices have an inverted relationship and one basis point equals 0.01%.
Treasurys
Concerns about a recession have been growing louder among investors as the Federal Reserve continues to follow a hawkish path lined with interest rate hikes.
This has begun filtering into earnings projections, with some companies and analysts revising their outlook downward for the coming quarters.
A fourth consecutive 75 basis point rate hike is now widely expected from the central bank at their meeting in early November and Fed speakers have suggested that this trend could continue. Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari warned on Wednesday that he was not yet comfortable with the path of inflation.
"I'm looking for some evidence that those have in effect stopped climbing. I haven't seen that evidence yet," he said during a Q&A session aired on the Minneapolis Fed site
On the data front, housing starts and new building permits for September were both weaker than expected, reinforcing the idea that the housing market is in recession. The Fed's Beige Book also showed an economy growing modestly, with the labor market weakening in some pockets of the country.
— CNBC's Jeff Cox contributed to this report.