Treasury yields inch higher as investors await key jobs report
U.S. Treasury yields inched higher on Friday as investors weighed a trading week dominated by a global bond selloff and awaited a key jobs report.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury was last up less than 1 basis point to 5.243% after climbing to multiyear highs on Thursday before retreating again. The 30-year Treasury bond was up over 1 basis point to 5.618% after hitting its highest level in 24 years the previous day. The 2-year Treasury note yield was little changed at 4.787%.
One basis point is equal to 0.01%, and yields and prices move in opposite directions.
Pressure on global government bonds eased elsewhere after a sharp sell-off this week, with 10-year yields down by around 3 basis points across major European economies. The recent rise in yields reflects concerns about stubborn inflation and hawkish central bank commentary, fueling expectations that interest rates could remain elevated for longer.
On Friday, investors will await September's nonfarm payrolls report, due in the morning, with the Dow Jones consensus estimating 84,000 jobs added to the U.S. economy and the unemployment rate holding steady at 4.1%.
"Clearly, the monthly jobs reports are always a macro highlight, but this is an important one, as the continued data resilience has been a huge factor supporting US risk assets, and it's also given the Fed space to start hiking rates," Deutsche Bank analysts said in a note Friday.
Traders are now pricing in a 72% chance that the central bank will keep interest rates unchanged in its October meeting, per the CME Group's FedWatch Tool.
