Treasuries Give Back Ground Following Recent Upward Move

(RTTNews) - After trending higher over the past few sessions, treasuries gave back some ground over the course of the trading day on Thursday.

Bond prices came under pressure in early trading and remained stuck in negative territory throughout the session. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, rose by 4.5 basis points to 2.351 percent.

The pullback by treasuries came following the release of some upbeat economic data, including a report from the Labor Department showing a bigger than expected drop in weekly jobless claims.

The Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell to 267,000 in the week ended June 13th, a decrease of 12,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 279,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to dip to 275,000.

A separate report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said regional manufacturing conditions saw a notable improvement in June.

The Philly Fed said its diffusion index of current activity jumped to 15.2 in June from 6.7 in May, with a positive reading indicating growth in regional manufacturing activity. Economists had expected the index to inch up to 8.0.

With the bigger than expected increase, the Philly Fed Index reached its highest level since hitting 24.3 in December of last year.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department also released a report showing that consumer prices rose by slightly less than expected in the month of May.

The Labor Department said its consumer price index climbed by 0.4 percent in May after inching up by 0.1 percent in April. Economists had expected a slightly bigger 0.5 percent increase.

Excluding food and energy prices, the core consumer price index edged up by 0.1 percent in May after rising by 0.3 percent in the previous month. Core prices had been expected to rise by 0.2 percent.

The weakness among treasuries may also have reflected a rally on Wall Street, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq reaching a new record intraday high.

Following the slew of economic data released today, the economic calendar for Friday is relatively quiet, potentially leading to choppy trading.