Treasuries Show Strong Move Back To The Upside

(RTTNews) - Treasuries ended the previous session roughly flat after paring early gains in a late-day pullback but showed a strong move back to the upside during trading on Thursday.

Bond prices advanced early in the session and remained firmly positive throughout the day. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, slumped 5.9 basis points to 4.947 percent.

The early strength among treasuries came amid an extended pullback by the price of crude oil, with U.S. crude oil futures tumbling by as much as 3.3 percent.

U.S. crude oil futures also plunged by more than 3 percent on Wednesday amid optimism about the steps Saudi Arabia is taking to avoid supply disruptions after the closure of its key East-West pipeline.

The price of crude oil dropped below $100 a barrel in early trading but has regained ground since then and was last seen trading down by 0.9 percent.

Treasuries remained sharply higher even as crude oil prices rebounded, as traders shrugged off yesterday's widely expected interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve.

While Fed officials' projections pointed to at least one more rate hike before the end of the year, traders may have felt yesterday's reaction was overdone in light of the recent surge in treasury yields.

In U.S. economic news, a report released by the Labor Department showed an unexpected decline in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended September 12th.

The Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell to 196,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 206,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to inch up to 208,000.