U.S. Treasury yields fell slightly on Friday morning, ahead of the release of December’s nonfarm payrolls report.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dipped by less than a basis point to 1.7302 at 4:20 a.m. ET. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond gave up less than basis point, falling to 2.0897%. Yields move inversely to prices and 1 basis point is equal to 0.01%.
The December nonfarm payrolls report is due to be released at 8:30 a.m. ET on Friday.
Economists are expecting the economy to have added 422,000 jobs in December, according to estimates compiled by Dow Jones. The unemployment rate is expected to come in at 4.1%.
U.S. weekly jobless claims totaled 207,000 for the week ended Jan. 1, the Labor Department said Thursday. The reading was higher than the expected 195,000. But the private sector added 807,000 jobs in December, ADP said Wednesday, which was significantly higher than the expected 375,000.
The 10-year yield topped 1.75% on Thursday, as investors digested the Fed’s latest meeting minutes, in which officials indicated that central bank was ready to more aggressively pull back its policy support of the economy.
On Thursday, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said that the Fed could hike interest rates as soon as March.
In addition, San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said that the central bank needs to raise raise in order to keep the economy in balance. However, Daly added that the Fed should reduce its balance sheet only after raising rates.
Scott Thiel, chief fixed income strategist at BlackRock, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Friday that his firm believes March is “too soon” to start raising interest rates.
At the same time, Thiel suggested that the pace at which the Fed raises rates should be more in focus than when it starts to do so.
There are no auctions scheduled to be held on Friday.
— CNBC’s Pippa Stevens contributed to this market report.
