U.S. Treasuries gain ahead of FOMC member Kaplan’s speech

The U.S. Treasuries gained Wednesday ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) member Robert Kaplan’s scheduled speech later in the day.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury remained slumped nearly 2 basis points to 2.29 percent, the super-long 30-year bond yields remained flat at 2.93 percent and the yield on short-term 3-year note also traded nearly 1 basis point lower at 1.45 percent.

Escalating geopolitical jitters over North Korea and Syria continue to weigh on investors’ sentiment, sending the safe-haven Japanese yen and gold to five-month highs. Against this background, the USD/JPY fell yesterday below 110 for the first time since 17 November, extending its losses on Wednesday and hovering around 109.35 in Asian trade.

Elsewhere, possible US military attack continues to weigh on the US dollar, with the EUR/USD trading around 1.0620 in European trade at the time of writing, within distance from yesterday’s multi session peak of 1.0630. Risk-off sentiment underpinned US Treasuries as well, with the 30-year Treasury yield plunging to a nearly three-month low of 2.91 percent. 

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 Futures fell 0.20 percent at 2,346.25 by 12:20GMT, while at 12:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly Dollar Strength Index remained neutral at 0.42 (a reading above +75 indicates a bullish trend, while that below -75 a bearish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex