{"id":350707,"date":"2026-03-17T12:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T12:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/350707\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T12:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T12:12:07","slug":"middle-east-tensions-build-ahead-of-fed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/350707\/","title":{"rendered":"Middle East tensions build ahead of Fed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025.  Photographer: Michael Nagle\/Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Treasury yields edged higher Tuesday as investors weighed escalating tensions in the Middle East and rising oil prices ahead of the Federal Reserve&#8217;s policy decision.<\/p>\n<p>The benchmark\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/US10Y\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">10-year Treasury<\/a>\u00a0yield was more than 2 basis points at 4.239%, while the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/US30Y\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">30-year Treasury<\/a>\u00a0bond added almost 3 basis points to yield 4.887%. The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/US2Y\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2-year Treasury<\/a>\u00a0note yield was little changed at around 3.686%.<\/p>\n<p>One basis point equals 0.01%, and yields and prices have an inverse relationship.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. President\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/donald-trump\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0said Monday that the U.S. has asked to delay his planned\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/03\/06\/trump-iran-war-china-trade-tariffs.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">meeting with Chinese President<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/xi-jinping\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Xi Jinping<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/03\/16\/bessent-trump-xi-china-iran-war.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Beijing<\/a>\u00a0by &#8220;a month or so&#8221; due to the ongoing\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/03\/16\/strait-of-hormuz-closure-generic-drug-prescriptions.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">war<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/03\/16\/us-is-allowing-iranian-tankers-through-strait-of-hormuz-says-bessent.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Trump was expected to travel to China at the end of March for the meeting with Xi.<\/p>\n<p>But when asked in the Oval Office on Monday afternoon if that trip was still on, Trump said: &#8220;I don&#8217;t know, we&#8217;re working on that right now.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Oil prices jumped more than 3% on Tuesday as uncertainty lingered over a U.S.-led coalition to protect shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Ship movements through the vital shipping route have plunged after Iranian attacks, fueling one of the largest disruptions to global oil supply in history.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>International benchmark Brent crude gained 3.43% to $103.65 per barrel, while the U.S.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/@CL.1\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">West Texas Intermediate<\/a>\u00a0rose 3.85% to $97.08 per barrel.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. has been urging allies to send military forces to protect tanker traffic through the strait.<\/p>\n<p>Investors are also turning their attention to the Federal Reserve&#8217;s second policy meeting of the year, set to conclude on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Monday,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[156583,128,964,72,122,132024,32521,3388,7234,969,113,61244,3387,32513,7533,61,144054,60,3161,156297,144051,32518,123,36795,10684,115,152576,144050,32514,7532,12139],"class_list":["post-350707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-lco26k","tag-bonds","tag-breaking-news-markets","tag-business","tag-business-news","tag-chevron-corp","tag-conocophillips","tag-deutsche-bank-ag","tag-donald-j-trump","tag-donald-trump","tag-economy","tag-exxon-mobil-corp","tag-government-debt","tag-halliburton-co","tag-ice-brent-crude-oct25","tag-ie","tag-invesco-db-oil-fund","tag-ireland","tag-ishares-20-year-treasury-bond-etf","tag-ishares-7-10-year-treasury-bond-etf","tag-lp","tag-marathon-petroleum-corp","tag-markets","tag-occidental-petroleum-equity-warrants-exp-3rd-august-2027","tag-prices","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-brent-oil-fund","tag-united-states-oil-fund","tag-valero-energy-corp","tag-wti-crude-sep25","tag-xi-jinping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}