By Deborah Levine, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Treasury prices turned higher Friday, pushing yields down, after the government said the U.S. economy added 103,000 jobs in December, while analysts said many in the market were expecting a number closer to 200,000.
Also supporting bonds was the central bank’s last bond buyback of the week.
Ten-year note yields (UST10Y 3.41, +0.00, +0.09%) , which move inversely to prices, fell 1 basis point to 3.39% after being up 2 basis points before the report. A basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point.
Yields on 2-year notes (UST2YR 0.65, -0.03, -4.14%) dropped 3 basis points to 0.64%
Thirty-year bond yields (UST30Y 4.55, +0.04, +0.82%) rose 4 basis points to 4.55%, heading back toward highs not seen since April.
The Labor Department’s report was not all weak: It said the unemployment rate fell to 9.4%, while economists had expected it to hold steady at 9.8%. Also, payrolls numbers for November and October were revised higher. Read more on payrolls.
“This is clearly a disappointing report to the growth camp, at least versus heightened expectations” due to private-payrolls data earlier this week, said strategists at CRT Capital Group.
