Treasuries Close Roughly Flat Following Choppy Trading Day

(RTTNews) - Following the rebound seen in the previous session, treasuries showed a lack of direction throughout the trading day on Tuesday.

Bond prices spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before closing roughly flat. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, rose by less than a basis point to 1.570 percent.

The choppy trading by treasuries came as traders seemed reluctant to make any significant moves ahead of the release of the closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.

The employment report for August could have a significant impact on expectations for the next Federal Reserve meeting in September.

The report is expected to show an increase of about 175,000 jobs in August after a jump of 255,000 jobs in July. The unemployment rate is expected to edge down to 4.8 percent from 4.9 percent.

In a highly anticipated speech last Friday, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said she believes the case for raising interest rates has strengthened in recent months.

The Conference Board released a report this morning showing a significant improvement in consumer confidence in the month of August.

The consumer confidence index jumped to 101.1 in August from a downwardly revised 96.7 in July, reaching its highest level since last September.

Economists had expected the index to come in unchanged compared to the 97.3 originally reported for the previous month.

A separate report released by Standard & Poor's showed an unexpected slowdown in the pace of home price growth in major metropolitan areas in the month of June.

Reaction to reports on private sector employment, pending home sales, and Chicago-area business activity may impact trading on Wednesday.