Treasury yields fell on Wednesday as it remained unclear which party would be in control of Congress, and a crypto selloff weighed on markets.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury was down four basis points to 4.088%. The 2-year Treasury yield dropped nearly nine basis points at 4.584%.
Yields and prices move in opposite directions and one basis point is equivalent to 0.01%.
Treasurys
Investors watched the U.S. congressional midterm elections for clues into future spending and monetary policy. Democrat John Fetterman defeated Republican Mehmet Oz for a pivotal Senate seat in Pennsylvania, according to an NBC News projection. Oz had the backing of former President Donald Trump, whose endorsed candidates saw spotty levels of success across the country.
Meanwhile, a hotly contested Senate race in Georgia between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican former NFL player Herschel Walker will head to a Dec. 6 runoff, according to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. A critical Senate race in Nevada is unresolved.
The price of bitcoin dropped to its lowest level since November 2020 after Binance said it's backing out of plans to acquire FTX, which weighed on market sentiment.
Richmond Federal Reserve President Thomas Barkin vowed Wednesday that the central bank will do what it takes to squash inflation. Concerns about the central bank hiking rates too high, too quickly — thereby possibly dragging the U.S. economy into a recession — have been spreading.
Last week, the Fed concluded its November meeting with the fourth consecutive 75 basis point rate hike.
The central bank has been using rate hikes as a tool in its fight against persistently high inflation. Investors are looking to the release of October's consumer inflation figures on Thursday to assess whether the Fed's policy is beginning to show effects. Â
—CNBC's Jeff Cox contributed to this report.