Continued Weakness On Wall Street Pushes Treasuries Higher

(RTTNews) - Extending the upward move seen over the two previous sessions, treasuries moved notably higher during trading on Thursday.

Bond prices moved steadily higher as the day progressed before closing firmly in positive territory. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell by 4.5 basis points to 2.277 percent.

The continued strength among treasuries came as stocks moved lower for the third consecutive session, pulling back further off their recent highs.

Another negative reaction to the latest batch of earnings news contributed to the weakness on Wall Street, with big-name companies like 3M (MMM), Caterpillar (CAT), and American Express (AXP) falling sharply after releasing their quarterly results.

Meanwhile, bond traders seemed to shrug off some upbeat U.S. economic data, including a report from the Labor Department showing initial jobless claims tumbled to their lowest level in over forty years in the week ended July 18th.

The report said jobless claims dropped to 255,000, a decrease of 26,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 281,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 279,000.

With the much bigger than expected decrease, jobless claims fell to their lowest level since hitting 233,000 in November of 1973.

The Conference Board also released a separate report showing its index of leading economic indicators rose more than expected in June, pointing to continued strength in the economic outlook for the remainder of the year.

On Friday, traders are likely to keep an eye on the release of the Commerce Department's report on new home sales in the month of June.