By Deborah Levine, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Treasury prices clawed back earlier gains on Thursday after the Institute for Supply Management’s gauge of the U.S. services sector slowed more than forecast for June.
The report followed a pair of U.S. jobs-related data that came in better than expected and Europe’s and England’s central banks easing of monetary policy.
Yields on 10-year notes 10_YEAR -2.39% , which move inversely to prices, lost 4 basis points to 1.59%, after being down 2 basis points before the data. A basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point.
Five-year yields 5_YEAR -4.27% declined 4 basis points to 0.67%.
Yields on 30-year bonds 30_YEAR -1.53% resumed a decline, falling 4 basis points to 2.71%.
U.S. bond markets were closed Wednesday in observance of Independence Day.
Comments from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi seemed to weigh on markets that are deemed riskier, boosting the relative appeal of U.S. debt. Read about ECB, Bank f England.
U.S. stocks fell about 0.6% and the euro EURUSD -1.1536% sunk to its lowest level versus the dollar in almost five weeks. Read about U.s. stocks.
Treasurys pared gains earlier after payroll-firm ADP said the U.S. private sector added 176,000 jobs in June, more than many analysts expected. Read about ADP data.
Weekly jobless claims also fell more than forecast. See story on jobless claims.
Both could make traders more optimistic about Friday’s U.S. nonfarm-payrolls report for June, which includes both public- and private-sector employment. Economists polled by MarketWatch expect the U.S. Labor Department to say the economy added 100,000 jobs last month.
“The net of the day’s employment proxies suggests a higher bias for tomorrow’s nonfarm-payrolls release versus the consensus,” said strategists at CRT Capital Group.
The data came shortly after the European Central Bank cut not only its refinancing rate, but its deposit rate and marginal lending facility rate. Read more on ECB.
Also, the People’s Bank of China lowered rates and the Bank of England expanded its asset-purchase program. Read about China’s surprise cut.
Deborah Levine is a MarketWatch reporter, based in New York.
