Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on February 23, 2026 in New York City, USA.
Brendan McDiarmid | Reuters
U.S. Treasury yields were little changed Tuesday as investors analyzed the latest developments in President Donald Trump’s tariff policy following a Supreme Court setback while preparing for the State of the Union address later in the day.
of 10 year treasury The yield rose more than 1 basis point to 4.039%. The yield on the 30-year government bond fell less than 1 basis point to 4.692%. Two-year bonds added more than two basis points to 3.461%.
One basis point equals 0.01%, and yields and prices move in opposite directions.
The Supreme Court last Friday struck down significant portions of President Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs in a 6-3 decision, ruling that the president had improperly relied on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to enforce them.
The next day, President Trump announced that he was raising global tariffs from 10% to 15%, saying the new rates would take effect immediately and warning that more taxes were coming.
The president, who is scheduled to address Congress on Tuesday night for his annual State of the Union address, said on Monday that countries that try to “play games” in response to the court’s ruling “will be subject to tariffs that are much higher and much worse than the ones we just recently agreed to.” This spurred a risk-off trend in the market.
Geopolitics remained front and center on Tuesday as speculation about a possible U.S. attack on Iran continued to rise. Deutsche Bank wrote in a note on Tuesday that a risk-off mood boosted U.S. Treasuries amid a stronger move toward safe-haven assets.
Also on Tuesday, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsby said in a speech at the National Association for Business Economics that interest rate cuts should be held off until there is more evidence that inflation is on track toward the Fed’s 2% target.
“People are expressing prices as one of their most pressing concerns. Let’s be careful. Let’s make sure inflation is back to 2% before we cut rates further to stimulate the economy,” he said.
