Treasuries Close Modestly Higher After Seeing Early Weakness

(RTTNews) - After initially moving to the downside, treasuries rebounded over the course of morning trading on Monday and ended the day modestly higher.

Bond prices saw some further upside going into the close, ending the session near their best levels. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell by 1.6 basis points to 2.516 percent.

With the drop on the day, the ten-year yield more than offset the modest uptick seen last Friday, falling to its lowest closing level in almost a month.

The early weakness among treasuries was partly due to the release of a report from the National Association of Realtors showing a sharp jump in pending home sales in May.

NAR said its pending home sales index jumped 6.1 percent to 103.9 in May from 97.9 in April, while economists had expected the index to rise by about 1.0 percent.

A pending home sale is one in which a contract was signed but not yet closed. Normally, it takes four to six weeks to close a contracted sale.

However, treasuries staged a recovery shortly afterward amid uncertainty ahead of the release of some key economic data later in the week.

Traders are likely to keep a close eye on the Labor Department's monthly jobs report, which is scheduled to be released on Thursday due to the holiday on Friday.

Economic reports on national manufacturing activity and construction spending could impact trading on Tuesday.