Remarks by Fed’s Bernanke and ISM services survey are still on tap
By Deborah Levine, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Treasury prices declined, pushing 2-year note yields up by the most in almost a month, after a government report Thursday showed that U.S. jobless claims fell last week by more than many analysts had expected.
Yields on 10-year notes (UST10Y 3.51, +0.03, +0.92%) , which move inversely to prices, rose 6 basis points to 3.51%. A basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point.
Two-year yields (UST2YR 0.69, +0.03, +4.22%) jumped by 9 basis points to 0.70%, the biggest increase since early January.
Yields on 30-year bonds (UST30Y 4.63, +0.01, +0.28%) were little changed at 4.62%, settling back after having touched 4.65% earlier.
The Labor Department said first-time filings for jobless claims fell 42,000 to stand at 415,000 last week. Read about jobless claims.
“Despite the weather-related volatility in claims, there is a discernible improvement in the labor market,” said Millan Mulraine, economic strategist at TD Securities, which expects that Friday’s nonfarm-payrolls report to show the U.S. economy expanded by 150,000 jobs last month.
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet also held his monthly press conference at about the same time as U.S. claims and productivity data came out.
He “sounds calmer and less hawkish with his view that inflation is contained,” said strategists at CRT Capital Group. Earlier Thursday, the central bank governing the euro zone opted to keep its benchmark interest rate steady, as many economists anticipated. Read more on the European Central Bank and Trichet.
Still to come are data on the U.S. services sector for January, a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in Washington and a debt buyback by the U.S. central bank.
