signage is seen at the united states department of the treasury headquarters in washington dc us august 29 2020 reutersandrew kelly new york jan 31 reuters  the us treasury yield curve is expected to be completely flat by mid year as the us federal reserve hikes interest rates but growth is called into question and potentially invert by yearend strategists at standard chartered bank wrote in a research note a hawkish stance by the fed has pushed up shortterm rates flattening the closely followed yield curve on us treasuries read more money managers and economists often view this shrinking of the gap between yields on shorterterm treasuries and those maturing out years as a sign of worries over economic growth and uncertainty about monetary policy read more the spread between the yield on 10 and 2year us treasury debt us2us10tweb tightened to early november lows on monday after hawkish comments by atlanta fed president raphael bostic standard chartereds steve englander and john davies in the research note dated friday forecast four rate hikes from the fed in a row in march may june and july that will mean pausing ahead of the us midterm election will not look partisan they said englander and davies said they were raising their twoyear yield forecast for the end of 2022 to 15 from 12 but said the market will increasingly question the resilience of growth during q2 and beyond leading to a completely flat 2y10y curve by midyear federal reserve officials are monitoring the flattening of the us treasury yield curve but dont view its behavior as an iron law that predicts economic outcomes chair jerome powell said last week englander and davies said that the flattening pressure may slow post july as they expect the feds hiking to pause however given powell’s view that yield curve signals concerning slowdownrecession risks are not “iron clad” we doubt that fed messaging or actions can prevent the 2y10y curve dipping into inverted territory by yearend they said