2018.11.1415:20:00UTC+00Treasuries Turn Positive After Seeing Initial Weakness

After initially showing a modest move to the downside, treasuries turned higher over the course of the trading session on Wednesday.

Bond prices pulled back off their best levels going into the close but remained in positive territory. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, dropped by 2.5 basis points to 3.120 percent.

The rebound by treasuries came as stocks on Wall Street pulled back into negative territory after failing to sustain an initial upward move.

A continued decline by shares of Apple (AAPL) weighed on stocks, with the tech giant slumping to a four-month intraday low.

Apple extended a recent downtrend after Guggenheim Partners downgraded its rating on the company's stock to Neutral from Buy amid expectations of a 5 percent drop in iPhone units sold in 2019.

The pullback by stocks also came on the heels of comments by Congresswoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who is expected to take over the powerful House Financial Services Committee in the next Congress.

Ahead of testimony by Federal Reserve Vice Chairman for Supervision Randal Quarles, Waters suggested she would halt President Donald Trump's efforts to roll back banking regulations.

"Make no mistake, come January, in this committee the days of this committee weakening regulations and putting our economy once again at risk of another financial crisis will come to an end," Waters said.

On the U.S. economic front, the Labor Department released a report showing consumer prices increased in line with economist estimates in the month of October.

The Labor Department said its consumer price index rose by 0.3 percent in October after inching up by 0.1 percent in September. Economists had expected prices to climb by 0.3 percent.

Excluding food and energy prices, core consumer prices edged up by 0.2 percent in October after creeping up by 0.1 percent in September. The uptick in core prices also matched expectations.

The annual rate of consumer price growth accelerated to 2.5 percent in October from 2.3 percent in September, while the annual rate of core consumer price growth slowed to 2.1 percent from 2.2 percent.

"The rebound in CPI inflation to 2.5% in October, from 2.3%, was mostly driven by a rise in gasoline prices which will be more than reversed over the next couple of months," said Andrew Hunter, U.S. Economist at Capital Economics.

He added, "The rest of the report supports our view that underlying inflation is unlikely to rise much further from here."

Trading on Thursday may be impacted by reaction to remarks by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, who is due to discuss national and global economic issues with Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan at an event in Dallas, Texas, this evening.

Reports on retail sales, weekly jobless claims, regional manufacturing activity, and import and export prices are also likely to attract attention.