Treasuries Move Notably Lower Amid Concerns About Interest Rate Outlook

(RTTNews) - Treasuries showed a notable move to the downside during trading on Thursday, extending the pullback seen in the previous session.

Bond prices came under pressure early in the session and remained firmly negative throughout the week. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, jumped 4.1 basis points to 4.663 percent.

The ten-year yield further offset the rebound seen last Friday and early this week but remains well off last Thursday's well over one-year closing high.

Concerns about the outlook for interest rates continued to weigh on treasuries even after the Federal Reserve left rates unchanged on Wednesday.

The Fed said it decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 3.5 to 3.75 percent, keeping rates unchanged for the fifth consecutive meeting.

The vote to leave rates unchanged was not unanimous, however, with Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari and Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan preferring to raise rates by a quarter point.

The votes to hike rates have led to worries the Fed will be forced to increase rates at its next meeting in September, particularly as crude oil prices have surged back to the upside amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

According to CME Group's FedWatch Tool, the chances the Fed will raise rates by a quarter point at its September meeting have risen to 63.2 percent.

Meanwhile, bond traders seemed to shrug off a Commerce Department report showing U.S. economic growth unexpectedly slowed in the second quarter of 2026.

The report said real gross domestic product jumped by 1.5 percent in the second quarter after surging by 2.1 percent in the first quarter. Economists had expected GDP to shoot up by 2.3 percent.

The Commerce Department said the unexpected slowdown in GDP growth reflected a downturn in government spending and decelerations in investment and exports that were partly offset by an acceleration in consumer spending.

Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, also increased more in the second quarter than in the first quarter, the report said.