WASHINGTON
(dpa-AFX) - After trending higher over the past several sessions, treasuries gave back some ground over the course of the trading session on Thursday.
Bond prices drifted lower for much of the day but climbed off their worst levels going into the close. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, rose by 3.2 basis points to 2.098 percent.
With the increase on the day, the ten-year yield climbed off the more than two-month closing low set in the previous session.
Profit taking contributed to the pullback by treasuries, as traders cashed in on the strong upward move seen in recent sessions.
An increase by the price of crude oil and a subsequent rally by stocks also weighed on treasuries, with crude for February delivery climbing $0.72 to $31.20 a barrel.
Treasuries remained stuck in the red following the release of the results of the Treasury Department's auction of $13 billion worth of thirty-year bonds.
The thirty-year bond auction drew a high yield of 2.905 percent and a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.29, while the ten previous thirty-year bond auctions had an average bid-to-cover ratio of 2.34.
The bid-to-cover ratio is a measure of demand that indicates the amount of bids for each dollar worth of securities being sold.
Today's thirty-year bond auction came after the Treasury sold $24 billion worth of three-year notes on Tuesday and $21 billion worth of ten-year notes on Wednesday.
On the
U.S.
economic front, the
Labor Department released a report this morning showing that initial jobless claims unexpectedly increased in the week ended January 9th.
The report said initial jobless claims climbed to 284,000, an increase of 7,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 277,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 275,000.
A separate Labor Department report showed a significant drop in
U.S.
import prices in the month of December, although the decrease was not quite as steep as economists had anticipated.
Trading on Friday may be impacted by the release of a slew of
U.S.
economic data, including reports on retail sales, producer prices, industrial production, and consumer sentiment.
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Source: Equities.com News
(January 14, 2016 - 5:36 AM EST)
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