NEW YORK - U.S. Treasury yields fell to almost two-week lows on Wednesday as commodity prices softened and as fears that the Federal Reserve will cause a recession by tightening monetary policy boosted demand for the U.S. bonds before Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is due to testify before Congress.

Oil prices tumbled on Wednesday on news of a plan by U.S. President Joe Biden to cut fuel costs for drivers and as recession fears dented demand and weighed on stocks.

“The overnight session featured a pretty big drubbing in energy, commodities prices and that’s putting a little bit of a deflationary bid into the curve,” said Guy LeBas, chief fixed income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia,” adding that “fears about economic growth have really gotten to take center stage away from fears of inflation.”

Investors are concerned that the U.S. central bank will dent growth as it aggressively raises interest rates to tackle soaring price pressures.

Powell is expected to maintain his hawkish stance towards further interest rate hikes on Wednesday, following the U.S. central bank’s 75 basis points rate increase last week, the biggest since 1994.

Economists polled by Reuters expect the Fed to hike by another 75 basis points in July, followed by a half-percentage-point rise in September, and that it would not scale back to quarter-percentage-point moves until November at the earliest.

Two-year Treasury yields fell to 3.094%. They have fallen from 3.456% on June 14, which was the highest since November 2007. Benchmark 10-year yields were at 3.162%, after reaching 3.498% on June 14, the highest since April 2011.

The closely watched yield curve between two-year and 10-year notes was at 7 basis points, after inverting early last week. An inversion in this part of the curve is seen as a reliable indicator that a recession is likely in one to two years.

(Reporting by Karen Brettell; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)