Treasury Yields Flat After U.S. GDP Data

U.S. government bond yields swung around the flatline after data showed U.S. economic growth picked up in the second quarter of the year.

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note was recently at 2.314%, according to Tradeweb, compared with 2.312% on Thursday. Yields rise as bond prices fall.

Yields pared early gains after the Commerce Department said gross domestic product rose at a 2.6% annual rate in the second quarter, just below the 2.7% that economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected. The reading was a rebound from the first quarter, when GDP grew at a disappointing 1.2% rate.

Still, data continues to suggest tepid inflation -- something that could keep pressure off government bond prices in the coming months. The employment-cost index for civilian workers, a broad gauge of U.S. wages and benefits, advanced by a seasonally adjusted 0.5% in the second quarter, the Labor Department said Friday, less than the 0.6% rate economists expected and a slowdown from the first quarter.

In recent weeks, central banks have suggested they would be cautious about tightening monetary policy if inflation data continues to come in soft. Investors typically consider inflation one of the greatest threats to long-term bonds, because it erodes the purchasing power of their fixed payments.

"While growth was reasonable, the absence of inflation pressures is more concerning and certainly doesn't point to any urgency for the Fed to hike again later this year," Ian Lyngen, head of U.S. rates strategy at BMO Capital Markets, said in a note.

Write to Akane Otani at akane.otani@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 28, 2017 10:05 ET (14:05 GMT)