WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After recovering from early weakness to end the previous session roughly flat, treasuries moved higher during trading on Thursday.
Bond prices gave back some ground after an early advance but moved back to the upside in afternoon trading. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell 4.0 basis points to 4.253 percent.
With the decrease on the day, the ten-year yield dropped to its lowest closing level in almost two months.
The strength among treasuries was partly due to concerns about the Federal Reserve's independence after a Wall Street Journal report said President Donald Trump is considering accelerating when he will announce his pick to succeed Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
While Powell's term runs for another 11 months, people familiar with the matter told the Journal, Trump has toyed with the idea of announcing Powell's replacement by September or October.
Trump, who has been harshly critical of Powell for the Fed's reluctance to lower interest rates, could see the early announcement of his replacement as putting pressure on the central bank to do his bidding.
On the U.S. economic front, the Labor Department released a report showing an unexpected decrease by initial jobless claims in the week ended June 21st.
The Labor Department said initial jobless claims dipped to 236,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's revised level of 246,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to come in unchanged compared to the 245,000 originally reported for the previous week.
A separate report released by the Commerce Department showed new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods spiked by much more than expected in the month of May.
The report said durable goods orders soared by 16.4 percent in May after tumbling by a revised 6.6 percent in April.
Economists had expected durable goods orders to surge by 8.5 percent compared to the 6.3 percent slump that had been reported for the previous month.
Excluding a substantial increase in orders for transportation equipment, durable orders climbed by 0.5 percent in May after coming in unchanged in April. Ex-transportation orders were expected to come in flat.
Meanwhile, revised data released by the Commerce Department showed the U.S. economy shrank by more than previously estimated in the first quarter of 2025.
The Commerce Department said real gross domestic product fell by 0.5 percent in the first quarter compared to the previously reported 0.2 percent dip. Economists had expected the decrease by GDP to be unrevised.
The bigger than previously estimated decline primarily reflecting downward revisions to consumer spending and exports that were partly offset by a downward revision to imports.
Trading on Friday is likely to be impacted by reaction to a report on personal income and spending, which includes the Fed's preferred readings on consumer price inflation.
Copyright(c) 2025 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2025 AFX News
