30-year Treasury yield falls under 3% after Fed decision
- The yield on the 30-year Treasury breaks below 3 percent after the Fed hikes rates.
Long-term U.S. government debt yields fell sharply on Wednesday on fears the Federal Reserve is slowing the economy with its continued rate hikes and balance sheet reduction.
The Fed raised its benchmark interest rate a quarter-point but lowered its projections for future hikes.
The yield on the 30-year Treasury fell eight basis point to below 3 percent, while the yield on the 10-year Treasury dropped five basis points to 2.7793 percent. Bond yields move inversely to prices.
The Fed raised interest rates by a quarter point on Wednesday, taking the fed funds rate range to 2.50 percent from 2.25 percent. The central bank also revised lower its interest rate forecast to two hikes in 2019, one less than it had previously forecast in September.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell later said in a press conference that the Fed's balance sheet reduction program proceed as planned, which worries some market participants that shrinking the balance sheet too rapidly will slow the economy too fast.
"Powell said he sees no problem with balance sheet run off. That's the one that hurts. That's another potential path of dovishness that he didn't take," said James Paulsen, chief market strategist at Leuthold Group.
- CNBC's Patti Domm contributed to this report.