WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After pulling back off their early highs and ending the previous session roughly flat, treasuries showed a strong back to the upside during trading on Thursday.
Bond prices showed a notable advance early in the session and remained firmly positive throughout the day. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, slumped 8.2 basis points to 4.305 percent.
The strength among treasuries came as traders kept an eye on the latest developments on the trade front, with comments from a Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesperson partly offsetting optimism about a U.S.-China trade deal.
Ministry of Commerce Spokesperson He Yadong told reporters there are currently 'absolutely no negotiations on the economy and trade between China and the U.S,' according to a CNBC translation.
He added that 'all sayings' regarding progress on bilateral talks should be dismissed and said the U.S. should cancel all 'unilateral' tariffs on China if it really wants to resolve the problem.
Meanwhile, later in the day, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. may reach 'an agreement on understanding' on trade with South Korea 'as soon as next week.'
'We had a very successful bilateral meeting with the Republic of South Korea today. We may be moving faster than I thought, and we will be talking technical terms as early as next week,' Bessent said.
On the U.S. economic front, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits edged modestly higher in the week ended April 19th.
The report said initial jobless claims crept up to 222,000, an increase of 6,000 from the previous week's revised level of 216,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 221,000 from the 215,000 originally reported for the previous week.
A separate report released by the Commerce Department showed new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods surged much more than expected in the month of March amid a spike by orders for transportation equipment.
The National Association of Realtors also released a report showing a steep drop by U.S. existing home sales in the month of March.
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