Bond investors digest Fed minutes

U.S. government debt prices traded in a narrow range on Friday as investors continued to digest yesterday's release of the minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's September meeting.

The Fed minutes indicated policymakers remained concerned about reaching their inflation target of 2 percent as well as the impact of the global economic slowdown. The minutes said policymakers didn't expect to reach their 2 percent inflation goal before the end of 2018.

New York Fed President William Dudley is due to speak to CNBC today at 11:00 a.m. ET.

Separately, the Atlanta Fed's Dennis Lockhart said a U.S. interest rate hike is still probably coming in October or December despite some conflicting economic signals.

Chicago Fed's Charles Evans is also scheduled to speak.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note (U.S.: US10Y) sat flat on Friday, at around 2.10 percent, after closing at 2.108 percent on Thursday. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was lower at 2.93 percent, after closing at 2.946 percent. The yields on both 5-year and 2-year Treasury notes were higher.

Thursday saw the Treasury Department auction $13 billion in 30-year bonds at a high yield of 2.914 percent. The bid-to-cover ratio, an indicator of demand, was 2.46, compared to an average of 2.35.

On the data front, import prices fell 0.1 percent in September, less than the expected 0.5 percent drop. However, export prices fell 0.7 percent, more than the 0.2 percent forecast by economists.

Wholesale inventories climbed 0.1 percent in August, in line with expectations.

—CNBC's Evelyn Cheng and Reuters contributed to this report

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