Treasuries Show Modest Move Back To The Upside Ahead Of Jobs Report

(RTTNews) - After showing a notable pullback over the past several sessions, treasuries regained some ground during trading on Thursday.

Bond prices moved modestly higher over the course of the morning and hovered in positive territory throughout the afternoon. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, dipped 2.2 basis points to 2.584 percent.

With the drop, the ten-year yield gave back some ground after closing higher for five straight sessions, although it remains well off last week's eleven-month closing low.

The modest strength among treasuries came on the heels of news of additional stimulus measures announced by the European Central Bank.

The ECB announced its decision to cut its benchmark interest rate by 10 basis points to 0.15 percent and also lowered its deposit rate to negative 0.1 percent.

Additionally, ECB President Mario Draghi announced a package of additional initiatives to stimulate the economy and said the bank is preparing to start buying asset-backed securities.

Peter Boockvar, managing director at the Lindsey Group, said, "Bottom line, of the realistic moves the ECB could make, Draghi is looking to enact all of them."

"Of what will actually work, it will likely be the ABS purchases, but that market needs to get bigger before the ECB has enough to buy to make it impactful," he added.

Nonetheless, traders seemed somewhat reluctant to make any significant moves ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched jobs report on Friday.

Friday's trading is likely to be driven by reaction to the jobs report, which is expected to show an increase of about 215,000 jobs in May following the addition of 288,000 jobs in April.