By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss

NEW YORK- US Treasury yields drifted higher on Monday as bond investors continued to price out near-term recession in the world’s largest economy amid data showing increased price pressures this month that could slow the pace of the Federal Reserve’s easing cycle.

Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee’s comments saying there are “lots of cuts” to come over the next 12 months – after last week’s jumbo interest rate cut of 50 basis points by the US central bank – weighed on Treasury yields as they pared their gains.

US yields on the long end of the curve – those from seven-year notes to 30-year bonds – earlier climbed to three-week highs. That further steepened the yield curve, a barometer of US economic prospects, with the gap between two and 10-year yields hitting positive 17.9 basis points (bps), the steepest since June 2022. It was last at positive 15.6 bps

The yield curve tracked a bear steepening path, in which yields on longer-dated Treasuries are rising faster than those on shorter-term maturities, suggesting that investors are pricing in a pick-up in inflation expectations at some point in the future.

Data on Monday reinforced what the yield curve is indicating. A report showed a rise in a key component of S&P Global’s flash US Composite PMI Output Index, which tracks the manufacturing and services sectors. The survey’s measure of prices paid by businesses for inputs expanded to a one-year high of 59.1 from 57.8 last month. Its gauge of prices charged rose to 54.7 from 52.9 in August.

The output index, however, was little changed at 54.4 in September compared to a final reading of 54.6 in August. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the private sector.

In afternoon trading, the benchmark 10-year yield rose 1.5 bps to 3.743 percent  after earlier hitting a three-week high of 3.794 percent .

“What kind of accelerated the sell-off (that pushed yields higher) a little bit is the thought that maybe we could be in a soft-landing situation. And I’m still not convinced it’s going to happen,” said Ellis Phifer, managing director for fixed income capital markets at Raymond James in Memphis.

Phifer believes a hard-landing scenario, or a deep recession, is in store for the US economy because the Fed waited too long.

“They should have gone (cut rates) in July to kind of get ahead of it,” Phifer said.

Phifer further cited Goolsbee’s comments on employment. Goolsbee noted that the Fed may have to increase the pace of easing because when employment falls, it is going to fall more quickly. Goolsbee is not a voter this year on the Federal Open Market Committee, but will rotate into voting status in 2025.

“Goolsbee’s concern about employment is hitting back at that soft-landing narrative,” Phifer said.

In other maturities, US 30-year yields increased 1.6 bps to 4.088 percent  percent  also hitting a three-week peak of 4.134 percent. – Reuters