Treasuries moved modestly higher over the course of the trading day on Thursday, as some traders looked for a safe haven ahead of tomorrow's closely watched jobs report.
After showing a lack of direction in early trading, bond prices climbed more firmly into positive territory in the afternoon. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, slipped 2.1 basis points to 1.825 percent.
With the drop, the ten-year yield partly offset yesterday's upward move but still ended the session off Tuesday's nearly four-month closing low.
The modest strength among treasuries came as traders looked ahead to Friday's monthly employment report from the Labor Department.
Economists expect employment to increase by about 150,000 jobs in January, while the unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 8.5 percent.
As a result, traders largely shrugged off the Labor Department's weekly jobless claims report, which showed that claims fell by more than anticipated in the week ended January 28th.
The report showed that jobless claims dipped to 367,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 379,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 370,000 from the 377,000 originally reported for the previous week.
Treasuries may also have benefited from remarks by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who told the House Budget Committee that the U.S. economy is on the mend but is not yet ready to stand on its own two feet without help from the Fed.
"Over the past two and a half years, the U.S. economy has been gradually recovering from the recent deep recession," Bernanke said in prepared testimony.
He added, "While conditions have certainly improved over this period, the pace of the recovery has been frustratingly slow, particularly from the perspective of the millions of workers who remain unemployed or underemployed."
While reaction to the monthly jobs report is likely to drive trading on Friday, reports on factory orders and service sector activity are also due to be released on the day.
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Market Analysis
June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.