U.S. Treasury yields declined on Tuesday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell emphasized the difficulty posed by balancing the state of employment in the U.S. economy and inflation.
The 10-year Treasury yield was more than 3 basis points lower at 4.112%. The 2-year Treasury yield was less than a basis point lower at 3.59%. The 30-year Treasury bond yield fell more than 3 basis points to 4.728%.
One basis point equals 0.01%, and yields and prices share an inverse relationship.
On Tuesday, Powell said during a speech to business leaders in Providence, R.I., that the situation between managing labor market weakness and tricky inflation was a “challenging” one.
“Near-term risks to inflation are tilted to the upside and risks to employment to the downside — a challenging situation,” he said during the speech. “Two-sided risks mean that there is no risk-free path.”
