Treasuries saw modest weakness during trading on Thursday, giving back some ground after ending the previous session notably higher.
After moving moderately lower in morning trading, bond prices regained some ground going into the close but remained in the red. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, edged up by 1.2 basis points to 1.611 percent.
The modestly lower close for treasuries came on the heels of the release of a report from the Labor Department showing an unexpected increase in initial jobless claims in the week ended June 9th.
The report showed that jobless claims rose to 386,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 380,000, while economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 375,000 from the 377,000 originally reported for the previous week.
While the report points to continued sluggishness in the labor market, the data led to optimism regarding the likelihood of further stimulus from the Federal Reserve.
A separate report from the Labor Department showed that consumer prices fell by 0.3 percent in May after coming in unchanged in April. The slightly steeper than expected drop was largely due to a 4.3 percent decrease in energy prices.
Core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy prices, rose by 0.2 percent in May, matching the increases seen in the two previous months and coming in line with estimates.
Meanwhile, the Treasury Department sold $13 billion worth of thirty-year bonds, finishing off this week's series of long-term securities auctions.
The thirty-year bond auction drew a high yield of 2.72 percent and a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.40, while the ten previous thirty-year bond auctions had an average bid-to-cover ratio of 2.66.
The bid-to-cover ratio is a measure of demand that indicates the amount of bids for each dollar worth of securities being sold.
Trading activity on Friday may be somewhat subdued amid uncertainty about the outcome of the weekend's elections in Greece.
Nonetheless, trading could be impacted by the release of U.S. reports on industrial production, consumer sentiment, and New York manufacturing activity.
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