Bonds

Treasury yields rise slightly as investors prepare for key economic data, Fed Chair Powell comments

U.S. Treasury yields rose slightly Monday as investors looked ahead to key data releases and comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell due this week.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury last traded a basis point higher at 3.971% after crossing the 4% mark on several days last week. The 2-year Treasury yield added 2 basis points to 4.884%.

Yields and prices move in opposite directions and one basis point is equivalent to 0.01%.

Treasurys


Investors weighed the outlook for monetary policy and the state of the U.S. economy, including inflationary developments, ahead of a series of data releases slated for the week. That includes JOLTs job openings data on Tuesday and February's jobs report on Friday.

The labor market is one of the key areas of the economy that the Fed has been trying to cool through policy measures such as interest rate hikes. The new figures could therefore provide hints about the impact of the central bank's monetary policy.

Before then, Fed Chairman Powell is expected to speak before Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday about the central bank's expectations regarding inflation and what this means for its policy approach.

In recent weeks, various Fed officials have indicated that the battle with inflation is not yet over and further interest rate hikes are likely necessary to cool pressures from rising prices. The central bank's next rate decision is expected at the conclusion of its upcoming meeting on March 21 and 22.