U.S. Treasury yields drifted lower on Thursday morning, despite strong weekly jobless claims and booming monthly retail sales data.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell about 3 basis points to 1.606% at around 8:30 a.m. ET. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond dipped about 5 basis points to 2.273%. Yields move inversely to prices.
Retail sales exploded in March as stimulus checks hit the bank accounts of millions of Americans. Retail sales rose 9.8% for the month, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. That compared to the Dow Jones estimate of a 6.1% gain and a decline of 2.7% in February.
A separate report showed that first-time filings for unemployment insurance plunged, with the Labor Department reporting 576,000 new jobless claims for the week ended April 10. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected the government to report that another 710,000 filed claims for the first time during the week ended April 10.
“Treasuries were benefiting from a bull flattening impulse brought in from the overnight session. Since this morning’s first round of data, the market has rallied further in an extension of the datapathy demonstrated throughout April,” BMO Capital Markets U.S. rates strategy head, Ian Iyngen, told clients.
The April National Association of Home Builders housing market index is set to be released at 10 a.m. ET.
Auctions are due to be held Thursday for $40 billion of 4-week bills and $40 billion of 8-week bills.
