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The U.S. Treasuries lost ground Tuesday even as market participants hope to see a slight downward revision in the country’s consumer price inflation for the month of February, scheduled to be released today by 12:30GMT. Also, investors are looking forward to watch the 30-year bond auction, due later today for detailed direction in the debt market.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasuries rose 1 basis point to 2.88 percent, the super-long 30-year bond yields climbed nearly 1-1/2 basis points to 3.14 percent and the yield on the short-term 2-year traded tad higher at 2.27 percent by 10:40GMT.
All eyes today will be on the US CPI report for February. In line with the Bloomberg consensus, Daiwa America’s chief economist Mike Moran expects to see both headline and core CPI rise 0.2 percent m/m. That would see the annual headline rate rise 0.1ppt to 2.2 percent y/y, but the annual core rate remained unchanged at 1.8 percent y/y, in line with the average of the past year.
While gasoline prices rose slightly in February, the seasonal adjustment process will probably translate that change into a slight decrease. In addition, a repeat of the 0.3 percent jump in core prices in January is not expected to be seen, which might have partly reflected a degree of residual seasonality, the increase will probably exceed the 0.1 percent rate registered in several months last year. The February NFIB small business sentiment survey is also due today, and seems set to remain close to the top of the range on the series, Daiwa Capital Markets reported.
Meanwhile, the S&P 500 Futures rose 0.24 percent to 2,795.50 by 10:45GMT, while at 10:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly Dollar Strength Index remained neutral at 19.45 (a reading above +75 indicates a bullish trend, while that below -75 a bearish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex
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