T-bill yields retreat slightly after the sell-off

US Treasury yields eased slightly on Thursday, following a sell off amid inflation fears.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury bill yield fell less than a basis point, falling to 1.531% at 3:45 am ET. The yield on 30-year Treasury bills fell by less than a basis point to 2.078%. Yields move in the opposite direction of prices and 1 basis point equals 0.01%.

The 10-year Treasury yield hit 1.56% on Wednesday as investors worried about a more lasting rise in prices and the prospect of tightening monetary policy.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told a European Central Bank roundtable on Wednesday that he expected prices to rise until 2022.

“It’s also frustrating to see the bottlenecks and supply chain issues not improving – in fact, the margins seem to be getting a bit worse,” he said. “We see this probably continuing into the next year and sustaining inflation for longer than we expected.”

Powell is due to speak to the US House Committee on Financial Services at 10 a.m. ET.

Investors are also watching the latest headlines from Washington. The House on Wednesday passed a bill that would suspend the U.S. debt ceiling after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday that Congress has until October 18 to raise or suspend the debt ceiling.

Meanwhile, the number of jobless claims filed during the week ended September 25 is expected to be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists predicted that 335,000 unemployment insurance claims were filed last week.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis will also release its final estimate of U.S. gross domestic product in the second quarter at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Auctions are scheduled to take place Thursday for $ 10 billion in four-week bills and $ 25 billion in eight-week bills.

– CNBC’s Jeff Cox and Pippa Stevens contributed to this market report.