Treasuries Close Nearly Flat Following Choppy Trading Day

(RTTNews) - Treasuries showed a lack of direction throughout the trading day on Monday before ending the session roughly flat.

Bond prices moved slightly higher on the day, although there was no conviction behind the move. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, edged down by less than a basis point to 2.784 percent.

With the slight drop on the day, the ten-year yield pulled back off the one-month closing high that it set last Friday.

The lackluster performance by treasuries came as traders seemed reluctant to make any significant moves amid a lack of major U.S. economic.

Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at the Lindsey Group, said, "In the U.S., the important economic data of the week doesn't come until Thursday's retail sales and Friday's PPI, and with commodity prices at the highest level since October '12, inflation numbers should now be a focus."

Meanwhile, bond traders largely shrugged off a report from the Chinese General Administration of Customs showing that China swung to a trade deficit in February.

With Chinese exports falling 18.1 percent year-over-year in February compared to a 10.1 percent increase in imports, the report showed a trade deficit of nearly $23 billion compared to a surplus of $31.9 billion in the same month last year.

Tuesday represents another relatively light day in terms of U.S. economic news, although the Commerce Department is scheduled to release its monthly report on wholesale inventories.

Bond traders are also likely to keep an eye on the results of the Treasury Department's auction of $30 billion worth of three-year notes.