Treasuries Extend Rebound But Close Well Off Best Levels

(RTTNews) - Following the sizable rebound seen in the previous session, treasuries saw some further upside during trading on Friday.

Bond prices moved notably higher in early trading but gave back some ground as the day progressed. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, dipped by 2.5 basis points to 2.425 percent.

The early strength among treasuries came amid initial weakness on Wall Street, with stocks pulling back off their recent record highs.

However, stocks turned in a relatively lackluster performance as the day progressed, as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the long weekend.

On the U.S. economic front, the Conference Board released a report showing a bigger than expected increase by its index of leading U.S. economic indicators in the month of January.

The Conference Board said its leading economic index climbed by 0.6 percent in January after rising by 0.5 percent in December. Economists had expected the index to increase by 0.4 percent. Following the slew of data that was released over the past week, the economic calendar for next week is relatively quiet.

Traders are likely to keep an eye on reports on new and existing home sales, consumer sentiment, and weekly jobless claims.

The Federal Reserve is also scheduled to release the minutes of its latest monetary policy meeting, which may shed some additional light on the outlook for interest rates.

Bond trading could also be impacted by reaction to the results of the Treasury Department's auctions of two-year, five-year, and seven-year notes.

The Treasury plans to sell $26 billion worth of two-year notes next Tuesday, $34 billion worth of five-year notes next Wednesday, and $28 billion worth of seven-year notes next Thursday.