RTRS: TREASURIES-U.S. Treasuries fall as U.S. job growth hurts safety bid
By Ellen Freilich
NEW YORK, Nov 2 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasuries prices fell on
Friday after the government reported stronger than forecast U.S.
job growth in October, a hopeful sign for the economic recovery
that whetted investors' appetite for riskier assets and damped
their desire for safe-haven U.S. government debt.
While the bond market's retreat was unmistakable, the fall
in prices was far from a rout. Investors noted that the
unemployment rate ticked up to 7.9 percent, ensuring that the
Federal Reserve's current accommodative monetary stance was
securely in place, and that wages remained flat.
"Incomes aren't really growing and if incomes don't grow,
how can spending grow?" said Wilmer Stith, vice president and
portfolio manager of the Wilmington Broad Market Bond Fund in
Baltimore, Md. "By no means is the economy out of the woods."
Immediately after the U.S. Labor Department released the
report, investors chose to buy riskier assets over safe-haven
U.S. Treasuries. U.S. stocks opened higher while the
benchmark U.S. 10-year note fell 10/32 in price. Its
yield rose to 1.77 percent from 1.73 percent late on Thursday.
The 30-year Treasury bond, down 1/32 before the
report, extended that loss to nearly a point, allowing its yield
to rise to 2.96 percent from 2.91 percent late on Thursday.
The government said employers added 171,000 people to their
payrolls last month. The government also said 84,000 more jobs
were created in August and September than initially estimated.
The jobless rate edged a tenth of a point higher to 7.9
percent, but that was due to a surge of workers back into the
workforce.
Jim O'Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency
Economics in Valhalla, New York, said the employment report
joined other positive economic data released this week.
Though the length of the average workweek was flat at 34.4
hours and average hourly earnings were flat, the data overall
signalled "fairly healthy" job growth.
Some investors speculated about the impact of the more
upbeat jobs report on the fiercely fought U.S. presidential
election this Tuesday.
"The polls are too close to call, but the latest employment
numbers may just save one more job - the President's," said
Marcus Bullus, trading director at MB Capital Partners.