U.S. Treasury yields were largely unchanged on Thursday morning as market participants waited for the G-20 Summit in Japan, which kicks off on Friday, and before much-awaited Sino-American trade talks that are scheduled to take place on the sidelines.
What are Treasurys doing?
The 10-year Treasury note yield TMUBMUSD10Y, -0.76% was 0.51% lower than Wednesday’s close at 2.03%, while the 2-year note yield TMUBMUSD02Y, -0.44% was down 1.34% at 1.752%. The 30-year bond yield TMUBMUSD30Y, -0.60% was up 0.04% to 2.57%.
What’s driving Treasurys?
Bond investors are waiting for President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to meet at the end of the week, for any signs of progress on relieving U.S.-China trade tensions.
U.S. stocks ended lower on Wednesday, after initially rallying after positive comments from U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s on the hopes for a positive outcome on trade wore off. The S&P 500 index logged a fourth day of losses.
Check out: S&P 500 logs longest losing skid in about 7 weeks
In economic data, the pace of growth in the U.S. economy in the first three months of 2019 was left at 3.1%, revised government figures show, as stronger business investment offset a weaker increase in consumer spending.
The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits in late June jumped to the highest level in almost two months, though so-called jobless claims continued to remain extremely low by historical standards. Initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, climbed by 10,000 to 227,000 in the seven days ended June 22, the government said Thursday. Economists polled by MarketWatch estimated new claims would total a seasonally adjusted 216,000.