Treasuries Come Under Pressure Going Into Close Of Trading

Treasuries showed a lack of direction for much of the trading session on Wednesday before coming under pressure going into the close.

Bond prices slid to new lows late in the day after spending most of the session lingering near the unchanged line. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, rose by 2 basis points to 1.746 percent.

With the modest increase on the day, the ten-year yield ended the session at its highest closing level in over a year.

The late-day weakness among treasuries came as traders awaited President Joe Biden's speech about his infrastructure and economic recovery plan.

Details revealed ahead of the speech showed the plan calls for spending approximately $2 trillion over eight years, with the proposal including investments in transportation infrastructure and accelerating the transition to clean energy.

To pay for the plan, Biden has called for raising the corporate tax rate to 28 percent from 21 percent, which is likely to face intense opposition from Republican lawmakers.

In U.S. economic news, a report from payroll processor ADP showing strong private sector job growth in the month of March has also generated some positive sentiment.

ADP said private sector employment surged up by 517,000 jobs in March after climbing by an upwardly revised 176,000 jobs in February.

Economists had expected employment to jump by 550,000 jobs compared to the addition of 117,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

The increase in private sector employment in March reflected the strongest job growth since the spike of 821,000 jobs seen last September.

On Friday, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its more closely watched monthly jobs report, which includes both public and private sector jobs.

Economists currently expect employment to jump by 639,000 jobs in March after climbing by 379,000 jobs in February. The unemployment rate is expected to drop to 6.0 percent from 6.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors released a report showing pending home sales plunged by much more than expected in the month of February.

NAR said its pending home sales index plummeted by 10.6 percent to 110.3 in February after tumbling by 2.4 percent to a revised 123.4 in January.

Economists had expected pending home sales to slump by 2.6 percent compared to the 2.8 percent dive originally reported for the previous month.

A pending home sale is one in which a contract was signed but not yet closed. Normally, it takes four to six weeks to close a contracted sale.

Reports on weekly jobless claims, manufacturing activity and construction spending may attract attention on Thursday, although trading activity may be somewhat subdued ahead of the holiday weekend.

The material has been provided by InstaForex Company - www.instaforex.com

source http://www.mt5.com/forex_news/quickview/2174540/