Treasuries Edge Up After Early Pullback, Closing Slightly Higher

(RTTNews) – After moving modestly lower early in the session, treasuries regained ground over the course of the trading day on Thursday before closing slightly higher.

Bond prices finished the day just above the unchanged line. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, edged down by less than a basis point to 4.281 percent after reaching a high of 4.322 percent.

The slight decrease on the day extended the ten-year yield’s losing streak to six sessions, with the yield falling to a new two-month low.

The initial pullback by treasuries partly reflected profit taking following the substantial upward move seen over the past several days.

Selling pressure remained subdued, however, as the Labor Department released a report showing initial jobless claims rose by more than expected in the week ended June 1st.

The Labor Department said initial jobless claims climbed to 229,000, an increase of 8,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 221,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to inch up to 220,000 from the 219,000 originally reported for the previous week.

Nonetheless, traders remained reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the release of the Labor Department’s more closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.

Economists expect the report to show employment increased by 185,000 jobs in May after climbing by 175,000 jobs in April, while the unemployment rate is expected to remain at 3.9 percent.

Trading on Friday is likely to be driven by reaction to the monthly jobs report and the impact on the outlook for the economy and interest rates.

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