U.S. Treasury yields climb amid cooling Fed rate cut bets

Investing.com -- U.S. Treasury yields rose on Wednesday, extending a sell-off that has stemmed from ebbing expectations for Federal Reserve interest rate reductions early this year.

By 06:51 ET (11:51 GMT), the yield on the benchmark 10-year note, a key gauge of long-term estimates for borrowing costs, had edged up by 0.03 percentage points to 3.980%, while the yield on the rate-sensitive 2-year note had added 0.02 percentage points to 4.349%. Prices typically fall as yields increase.

On Tuesday, the 10-year note yield briefly touched an over two-week high and the 2-year also gained.

At the end of 2023, the 10-year was hovering just below 3.9% following a strong rally to cap off the year that was driven by fresh hopes for Fed rate cuts and a so-called "soft landing" for the U.S. economy. In this scenario, the Fed's aggressive rate hiking campaign successfully cools inflation without sparking a meltdown in the broader economy.

Bolstered by the jump in Treasury yields, the U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its currency pairs, had risen by 0.2% to 102.44. The measure had its best daily performance since March 2023 in the previous session.