U.S. Treasury yields fell on Thursday as last week’s initial jobless claims dropped to a new Covid-era low in the face of the highly contagious delta variant.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell 4 basis points to at 1.295% at around 4:00 p.m. ET. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond dropped 6 basis points to 1.888%. Yields move inversely to prices.
The number of jobless claims filed during the week ended Sept. 4 totaled 310,00. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected 335,000 Americans filed for unemployment last week, compared to the previous week’s 340,000.
The Labor Department’s latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey on Wednesday showed job openings outnumbered the unemployed by more than 2 million in July. The Federal Reserve watches the JOLTS data closely for any signs of slack in employment.
In its latest “Beige Book,” released on Wednesday, the Fed said rising inflation was being exacerbated by a shortage of goods and that this would likely be passed onto consumers in many areas.
The Fed also said that growth overall had “downshifted slightly to a moderate pace” amid rising public health concerns during the July-through-August period that the report covers.
— CNBC’s Jeff Cox and Hannah Miao contributed to this market report.
