By Deborah Levine, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Treasury prices edged lower Thursday -- leaving yields up slightly -- after mixed data surfaced on jobless claims, manufacturing around Philadelphia and a national index of leading indicators.
Still to come, the government will say how much debt it will auction next week.
Yields on 10-year notes (UST10Y 3.64, 0.00, -0.11%) rose 1 basis point to 3.66%. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point and yields move inversely to prices.
Yields on two-year notes (UST2YR 0.88, +0.01, +1.38%) increased 2 basis points to 0.89%.
First-time claims for state unemployment benefits jumped by the largest amount in eight months to a higher-than-predicted 482,000, the Labor Department reported. An official said there were more estimates this week because of the holiday on Monday. In addition, some of the increase may be due to administrative delays in reporting claims since the Christmas and New Year holidays. See more on jobless claims.
"This does not make the claims figures strong, as in economically strong, but just a caution on taking too pessimistic a read," said strategists at CRT Capital Group.
The index of manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region diffusion index fell to 15.2 in January from 22.5 in December, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said. The decline was sharper than many economists predicted.
Leading U.S. economic indicators increased 1.1% in December, stronger than the 0.7% increase expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch. See more on leading indicators.
The Treasury Department is expected to say at 11 a.m. Eastern time that it will sell $44 billion in 2-year notes on Tuesday, followed by $42 billion in five-year debt (UST5YR 2.42, +0.01, +0.29%) the next day, according to research firm Wrightson ICAP.
It will also sell $32 billion in seven-year notes on Thursday, analysts said.
Those amounts would be unchanged from last month's sales of the securities.
