2021.05.0619:18:00UTC+00Treasuries Extend Upward Trend Ahead Of Monthly Jobs Report

Treasuries moved modestly higher during trading on Thursday, extending the upward trend seen over the past few sessions.

Bond prices moved to the upside in morning trading and remained firmly positive throughout the afternoon. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell by 2.3 basis points to 1.561 percent.

The continued strength among treasuries may have reflected their appeal as a safe haven ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report.

Ahead of the release of the monthly report, the Labor Department released a report showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits fell by much more than expected in the week ended May 1st.

The report said initial jobless claims slid to 498,000, a decrease of 92,000 from the previous week's revised level of 590,000.

Economists had expected initial jobless claims to edge down to 540,000 from the 553,000 originally reported for the previous week.

The bigger than expected decrease once again dragged jobless claims down their lowest level since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.

"Claims have declined by 33% since the start of April, further confirmation that a recovery in the labor market is well underway," said Nancy Vanden Houten, Lead Economist at Oxford Economics. "We expect more evidence of that recovery in tomorrow's April jobs report."

Economists currently expect employment to jump by 978,000 jobs in April after surging up by 916,000 jobs in May. The unemployment rate is also expected to dip to 5.8 percent from 6.0 percent.