Treasuries Regain Ground Following Recent Weakness

(RTTNews) - Treasuries moved to the upside during trading on Thursday, regaining some ground after trending lower over the past several sessions.

Bond prices pulled back near the unchanged line after seeing initial strength but rebounded firmly into positive territory. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell by 4.2 basis points to 4.200 percent.

With the decrease on the day, the ten-year yield gave back ground after ending the previous session at its highest closing level in almost three months.

The rebound by treasuries partly reflected bargain hunting following the recent weakness, which partly reflected concerns the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates more slowly than previously anticipated.

Buying interest was somewhat subdued, however, as trades digested some upbeat U.S. economic data, including a Labor Department report unexpectedly showing a continued pullback by initial jobless claims in the week ended October 19th.

The report said initial jobless claims fell to 227,000, a decrease of 15,000 from the previous week's revised level of 242,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to inch up to 242,000 from the 241,000 originally reported for the previous week.

Jobless claims continued to give back ground after reaching their highest level in over a year in the week ended October 5th.

The Commerce Department also released a report showing new home sales in the U.S. rebounded by much more than expected in the month of September.

The report said new home sales surged by 4.1 percent to an annual rate of 738,000 in September after tumbling by 2.3 percent to a revised rate of 709,000 in August.

Economists had expected new home sales to climb by 0.5 percent to an annual rate of 720,000 from the 716,000 originally reported for the previous month.

With the much bigger than expected increase, new home sales reached their highest level since hitting an annual rate of 741,000 in May 2023.

Looking ahead, trading on Friday may be impacted by reaction to a report on durable goods orders and a revised reading on consumer sentiment.