Treasuries moved sharply higher during trading on Thursday, extending the strong upward move seen over the course of the previous session.<\/p>\n
Bond prices gave back some ground after an early surge but remained firmly positive. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, tumbled by 12.0 basis points to 4.669 percent.<\/p>\n
The ten-year yield added to the 8.6 basis point drop seen on Wednesday, falling to its lowest closing level in almost three weeks.<\/p>\n
The extended rally by treasuries came as the latest economic data added to the optimism the Federal Reserve is done raising interest rates.<\/p>\n
The Labor Department released a report showing an unexpected uptick in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended October 28th.<\/p>\n
The report said initial jobless claims crept up to 217,000, an increase of 5,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 212,000. <\/p>\n
Economists had expected jobless claims to come in unchanged compared to the 210,000 originally reported for the previous week.<\/p>\n
A separate report from the Labor Department also showed an unexpected decrease in unit labor costs in the third quarter.<\/p>\n
The Labor Department said unit labor costs fell by 0.8 percent in the third quarter after shooting up by a revised 3.2 percent in the second quarter.<\/p>\n
Unit labor costs were expected to climb by 0.7 percent compared to the 2.2 percent increase that had been reported for the previous quarter.<\/p>\n
On Friday, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its closely watched report on employment in the month of October.<\/p>\n
Economists currently expected employment to increase by 180,000 jobs in October after surging by 336,000 jobs in September. The unemployment rate is expected to remain at 3.8 percent.<\/p>\n
The monthly jobs report is likely to be in the spotlight on Friday, as traders look for additional clues about the outlook for interest rates. <\/p>\n