After ending the previous session roughly flat, treasuries moved to the upside over the course of the trading session on Thursday.
Bond prices experienced some choppy trading but managed to end the day firmly in positive territory. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell by 4.5 basis points to 1.697 percent.
Treasuries initially benefited from a notable decrease by the price of crude oil, which pulled back following the substantial rebound seen on Wednesday.
However, treasuries managed to remain firmly positive even as the price of oil once again bounced well off its early lows.
Crude for April delivery eventually ended the session up by $0.92 at $33.07 a barrel after hitting a low of $31.07 a barrel.
On the U.S. economic front, the Commerce Department released a report showing a much bigger than expected rebound in durable goods orders in the month of January.
The report said durable goods orders jumped by 4.9 percent after slumping by a revised 4.6 percent in December. Economists had expected durable goods orders to climb by 2.0 percent.
Excluding orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders climbed by 1.8 percent in January after falling by 0.7 percent in December. Ex-transportation orders had been expected to come in flat.
Despite the strong headline figure, Rob Carnell, Chief International Economist at ING Commercial Banking, said the trend in orders and shipments is not giving a particularly clear message.
“With yet another inconclusive set of data, markets will make of this whatever they want,” Carnell said. “But the fact remains, the direction of the U.S. economy at this juncture remains far from clear.”
He added, “In consequence, the Fed’s response remains in the balance, though we feel the hurdles for further tightening are high, so at the very least, this data provides no excuse for a near term tightening.”
A separate report from the Labor Department showed a modest rebound in initial jobless claims in the week ended February 20th.
The report said initial jobless claims climbed to 272,000, an increase of 10,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level of 262,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 270,000.
In other bond-related news, the Treasury Department delayed the close of its auction of $28 billion worth of seven-year notes due to a technical issue.
The Treasury said the non-competitive and competitive portions of the auction will now close on Friday at 11:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. ET, respectively.
Competitive and non-competitive bids that have been submitted will still stand, but bidders may review and update bids until the auction closes, the Treasury said.
The results of the auction may attract attention on Friday along with reports on fourth quarter GDP, personal income and spending, and consumer sentiment.
Published: 2016-02-25 19:18:00 UTC+00
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