U.S. government-bond prices climbed Wednesday after soft inflation data indicated that investors will have to wait longer for the big increase in consumer prices that many have been expecting this year.
In recent trading, the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was 1.138%, according to Tradeweb, down from 1.174% before the data was released and 1.156% Tuesday.
Yields, which fall when bond prices rise, dropped after the Labor Department said core consumer prices, excluding the often volatile food and energy categories, remained unchanged in January compared with the previous month. Core prices were also flat in December after a downward revision to the earlier estimate.
Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected a 0.1% increase in core prices in January.
Overall, the data indicates that “there’s just no real significant underlying inflationary pressure,” said Thomas Simons, senior vice president and money-market economist in the fixed-income group at Jefferies LLC.
