Jobless Claims Data Contributes To Continued Weakness Among Treasuries

(RTTNews) - Treasuries showed a lack of direction early in the session on Thursday but slid more firmly into negative territory as the day progressed.

While bond prices climbed off their worst levels late in the session, they remained in the red. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, climbed 3.8 basis points to 4.144 percent.

The ten-year yield closed higher for the third consecutive session, reaching its highest closing level in over a month.

The continued weakness among treasuries came following the release of a Labor Department report showing an unexpected decrease in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended January 13th.

The report said initial jobless claims fell to 187,000, a decrease of 16,000 from the previous week's revised level of 203,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to inch up to 207,000 from the 202,000 originally reported for the previous week.

With the unexpected decline, jobless claims dropped to their lowest level since hitting 182,000 in the week ended September 24, 2022.

Matthew Martin, U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics, said the data is consistent with a "labor market that will need further loosening before the Fed considers rate cuts and bolsters our assumption that the March FOMC meeting will be too soon."

He added, "However, we expect job growth to moderate further but remain positive in the months ahead, giving the Fed room to start cutting rates at its May meeting as long as inflation continues to decelerate."

A busy week on the U.S. economic calendar continues on Friday with the release of reports on existing home sales and consumer sentiment.