A key segment of the Treasury market is on a record losing streak ahead of the Fed meeting

Published Tue, Mar 19 202410:54 AM EDTUpdated Tue, Mar 19 202411:18 AM EDT

Jesse Pound @/in/jesse-pound @jesserpound

One of the biggest funds tracking a key part of the U.S. Treasury market is heading into this week's Federal Reserve meeting on a historic slide. The $47 billion iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) dropped for the eighth-straight trading session on Monday, apparently the longest such decline since the fund launched in 2002. The price of bond funds like TLT move in the opposite direction of bond yields, meaning lower prices equal higher yields. TLT 1M mountain The iShares 20+ Year Treasury ETF has fallen for eight straight trading sessions. The magnitude of the drops have been small. Only two of the trading sessions have seen a decline of more than 0.5%. Over the eight-day span, the TLT has dropped just 3.5%. One of the TLT's main competitors, the Vanguard Long-Term Treasury ETF (VGLT) , also fell for eight-straight trading sessions. The slow slide comes ahead of Wednesday's Federal Reserve policy statement, after policymakers kicked off their two-day meeting Tuesday. Recent inflation readings have surprised to the upside, lowering confidence among investors that the central bank will soon move to lower interest rates. Wednesday's Fed update will come with a new summary of economic projections, which includes the growth outlook of the central bankers and the so-called "dot plot" laying out expected interest rate changes in coming years. It is important to note that the losing streak does not hold across all parts of the Treasury market. The iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond ETF (SHY) has only fallen in five of the past eight sessions, for example. The shorter end of the Treasury curve is typically more sensitive to rate cut expectations, though the upward move in long-term yields could be a sign that investors are expecting rates to remain generally higher in the years ahead after approaching 0% following the 2008 financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic. The TLT's losing streak was pointed out Monday on social media site X by Jason Goepfert , managing member of White Oak Consultancy.