By Deborah Levine, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Treasury prices rose for a sixth session on Thursday, pushing 10-year yields towards their all-time lows, as a selloff in riskier assets including stocks and commodities prompted money to move into the relative safe havens of U.S. debt and the dollar.
The Federal Reserve’s minutes in the prior session gave no hint of imminent easing.
Yields on 10-year notes 10_YEAR -2.10% , which move inversely to prices, fell 3 basis points to 1.49%. A basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point. The record closing low is 1.467%, according to FactSet.
Five-year-note yields 5_YEAR -1.72% declined 2 basis points to 0.64%, also near their lowest level ever.
Yields on 30-year bonds 30_YEAR -1.53% fell 3 basis points to 2.58%. The record low set in early June was 2.54%.
Still to come is the Treasury Department’s sale of 30-year bonds at 1 p.m. Eastern time.
Bonds rose on Thursday after minutes from the Fed’s June meeting gave investors no assurance that policy makers were more inclined to expand their asset purchases once again -- a policy sometimes referred to as a third round of quantitative easing. Read Thursday’s Bond Report.
“Disappointment that QE3 was not higher on the Fed’s radar has weighed on equities and on gold prices,” Richard Gilhooly, U.S. director of interest-rate strategy at TD Securities.
He also noted that the euro EURUSD -0.4400% fell to its lowest level in two years against the dollar. Read about euro, dollar.
“The recent correlation between the euro and the level of yields ... would suggest that Treasury yields will head yet lower once the 30-year supply has been taken down,” he said.
Bonds held gains after a U.S. report said jobless claims fell more than expected in the latest week. The decline was attributed to seasonal distortions related to when auto factories shut for the summer. Separate data showed import prices declined again last month. See story on jobless claims.
Deborah Levine is a MarketWatch reporter, based in New York.
