Treasuries See Further Upside Amid Progress On Debt Ceiling Bill

After moving sharply higher over the two previous sessions, treasuries saw further upside during trading on Thursday.

Bond prices gave back ground after an early advance but remained in positive territory. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell by 2.9 basis points to 3.608 percent.

The continued strength among treasuries came after the House voted Wednesday night to approve the bill raising the U.S. debt ceiling.

The House voted 314 to 117 in favor of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, with the legislation attracting support from both Democrats and Republicans.

The legislation now heads to the Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he hopes lawmakers can work quickly and bring the bill to the president’s desk “as soon as possible.”

Schumer said the Senate would remain in session until the bill is passed and warned lawmakers would be risking a default by trying to amend the legislation and send it back to the House.

On the U.S. economic front, payroll processor ADP released a report showing private sector employment in the U.S. jumped by much more than expected in the month of May.

The report said private sector employment shot up by 278,000 jobs in May after surging by a revised 291,000 jobs in April.

Economists had expected private sector employment to increase by 170,000 jobs compared to the spike of 296,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department released a report showing a slight increase in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended May 27th.

The report said initial jobless claims crept up to 232,000, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 230,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 235,000 from the 229,000 originally reported for the previous week.

The Institute for Supply Management also released a report showing U.S. manufacturing activity contracted at a slightly faster rate in the month of May.

The ISM said its manufacturing PMI slipped to 46.9 in May from 47.1 in April, with a reading below 50 indicating a contraction. Economists had expected the index to edge down to 47.0.

Trading on Friday is likely to be driven by reaction to the monthly jobs report, which could impact the outlook for interest rates.

Economists currently expect employment to increase by 190,000 jobs in May after jumping by 253,000 jobs in April, while the unemployment rate is expected to inch up to 3.5 percent from 3.4 percent.

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