Treasuries showed a lack of direction throughout the trading day on Wednesday before closing roughly flat for the third consecutive session.
Bond prices spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note closed unchanged for the second straight day at 1.698 percent. The ten-year yield edged down by less than a basis point on Monday.
The choppy trading came despite the release of a report from the Commerce Department showing a much steeper than expected drop in durable goods orders in March.
The report showed that durable goods orders tumbled by 5.7 percent in March following a revised 4.3 percent increase in February. Economists had expected orders to drop by 2.8 percent.
Excluding a sharp drop in orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders still fell by 1.4 percent in March compared to a 1.7 percent drop in February.
Traders also shrugged off the results of the Treasury Department's auction of $35 billion worth of five-year notes, which attracted slightly above average demand.
The five-year note auction drew a high yield of 0.71 percent and a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.86, while the ten previous five-year note auctions had an average bid-to-cover ratio of 2.81.
The bid-to-cover ratio is a measure of demand that indicates the amount of bids for each dollar worth of securities being sold.
Finishing off this week's series of long-term securities auctions, the Treasury is due to sell $29 billion worth of seven-year notes on Thursday.
Trading on Thursday could also be impacted by the release of the Labor Department's report on weekly jobless claims. Economists expect claims to edge down to 350,000 from 352,000.
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Market Analysis
June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.