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US Treasury yields edge lower as geopolitical tensions over North Korea resurface

Getty Images. U.S. government debt yields rose Wednesday as investors looked to the outcome of a U.S. Federal Reserve meeting.

U.S. government debt yields were lower as investors grew worried in the wake of a new exchange of barbs between North Korea and Washington. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury notes (U.S.:US10Y), which moves inversely to price, was lower at 2.261 percent, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was also lower at 2.798 percent. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Thursday that he was considering the "highest level of hard-line countermeasure" in response to Trump's warning the U.S. would be prepared to "totally destroy" Pyongyang if forced to defend itself or its allies. North Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Ri Yong Ho said that his country may consider a test of a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean, according to a report from South Korea's official news agency Yonhap. Ri's threat is significant because such a detonation would move North Korea's nuclear weapons activities beyond its borders for the first time. A number of Federal Reserve presidents are set to speak Friday, just two days after the central bank announced that it would start rolling back its $4.5 trillion balance sheet in October. Fed President Esther George will deliver an opening keynote speech before the Federal Reserve Banks of Kansas City and Dallas Energy Conference at 9:30 a.m. ET. Dallas Fed chief Robert Kaplan will take questions at the same event in the afternoon. In oil markets, Brent crude traded at around $56.51 a barrel on Friday morning, up 0.14 percent, while U.S. crude was around $50.58 a barrel, up 0.06 percent. Oil prices gyrated on Friday as the market waited to see whether major oil producers would support an extension to output cuts beyond March. Ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are scheduled to meet in Vienna on Friday morning.

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