Treasuries Extend Pullback Following Jobless Claims Data

(RTTNews) - Extending the pullback seen over the two previous sessions, treasuries moved to the downside during trading on Thursday.

Bond prices saw initial strength but slid into negative territory as the day progressed. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, rose by 2.9 basis points to 3.997 percent.

With the increase, the ten-year yield continued to regain ground after falling to its lowest levels since late last December on Monday.

The continued weakness among treasuries came after the Labor Department released a report showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits pulled back by more than expected in the week ended August 3rd.

The report said initial jobless claims fell to 233,000, a decrease of 17,000 from the previous week's revised level of to 250,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 240,000 from the 249,000 originally reported for the previous week.

The bigger than expected decline came a week after jobless claims reached their highest level since hitting 258,000 in the week ended August 5, 2023.

Treasuries remained in the red after the Treasury Department revealed this month's sale of $25 billion worth of thirty-year bonds attracted modestly below average demand.

The thirty-year bond auction drew a high yield of 4.314 percent and a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.31, while the ten previous thirty-year bond auctions had an average bid-to-cover ratio of 2.38.

The bid-to-cover ratio is a measure of demand that indicates the amount of bids for each dollar worth of securities being sold.

Trading activity in the bond market may be somewhat subdued on Friday amid a lack of major U.S. economic data.