After coming under pressure early in the session, treasuries regained ground over the course of the trading day on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Bond prices climbed well off their early lows, eventually ending the day roughly flat. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, inched up by less than a basis point to 4.129 percent after reaching a high of 4.182 percent.<\/p>\n
Profit taking contributed to the early weakness in the bond markets<\/span>, as traders looked to cash in on the recent strength in the bond markets.<\/p>\n Treasuries moved notably higher over the two previous sessions, pushing the ten-year yield down to its lowest closing level in three months on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Selling pressure waned over the course of the morning, however, as traders remain optimistic about the outlook for interest rates ahead of the release of the Labor Department’s closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.<\/p>\n Economists currently expect employment to increase by 180,000 jobs in November after rising by 150,000 jobs in October, while the unemployment rate is expected to hold at 3.9 percent.<\/p>\n The jobs report could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting next week.<\/p>\n While the Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders will be looking to the jobs data to provide further evidence the central bank could cut rates as soon as March 2024.<\/p>\n A day ahead of the release of the monthly jobs report, the Labor Department released a report showing a slight uptick in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended December 2nd.<\/p>\n The report said initial jobless claims ticked up to 220,000, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 219,000.<\/p>\n Economist had expected jobless claims to rise to 222,000 from the 218,000 originally reported for the previous week.<\/p>\n While the monthly jobs report is likely to be in the spotlight on Friday, a report on consumer sentiment in the month of December may also attract attention, as it includes readings on inflation expectations. <\/p>\n