Treasuries Extend Recent Pullback With Modest Drop

(RTTNews) - After moving sharply lower over the course of the previous session, treasuries saw some further downside during trading on Thursday.

Bond prices moved moderately lower in early trading and remained stuck in the red throughout the session. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, inched up by 1.6 basis points to 1.87 percent.

With the modest uptick on the day, the ten-year yield closed higher for the fourth straight session, reaching its highest closing level in almost a month.

The continued weakness among treasuries came following the release of a report from the Labor Department showing that initial jobless claims fell to their lowest level in over forty years in the week ended April 16th.

The Labor Department said initial jobless claims edged down to 247,000, a decrease of 6,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 253,000. Economists had expected claims to rise to 265,000.

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

Meanwhile, traders largely shrugged off a separate report from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve showing an unexpected contraction in regional manufacturing activity.

Traders also kept an eye on developments in Europe, where the European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged as expected.

In his subsequent press conference, ECB President Mario Draghi predicted rates would remain at current or lower levels for an extended period.

Trading activity on Friday may be somewhat subdued amid a quiet day on the U.S. economic front, although Markit is due to release the flash estimate of its manufacturing index for April.