After an early move to the downside, treasuries showed a notable turnaround over the course of the trading session on Monday.<\/p>\n
Bond prices surged in early afternoon trading, jumping into positive territory. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, dipped 1.9 basis points to 4.422 percent after reaching a high of 4.482 percent.<\/p>\n
With the modest decrease on the day, the ten-year yield fell to its lowest closing level in two months.<\/p>\n
The early afternoon turnaround by treasuries came after the Treasury Department announced the results of this month’s auction of $16 billion worth of twenty-year bonds.<\/p>\n
The twenty-year bond auction drew a high yield of 4.780 percent and a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.58, while the ten previous twenty-year bond auctions had an average bid-to-cover ratio of 2.66.<\/p>\n
The bid-to-cover ratio is a measure of demand that indicates the amount of bids for each dollar worth of securities being sold.<\/p>\n
Trading activity remained somewhat subdued, however, as traders looked ahead to the release of the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
In U.S. economic news, the Conference Board released a report showing its reading on leading U.S. economic indicators fell by more than expected in the month of October.<\/p>\n
The report said the leading economic index slid by 0.8 percent in October after falling by 0.7 percent in September. Economists had expected the index to decrease by 0.6 percent.<\/p>\n
While the Fed minutes are likely to be in the spotlight on Tuesday, traders are also likely to keep an eye on a report on existing home sales. <\/p>\n