Bond Report: Treasury yields rise as investors watch for U.S. jobs data

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U.S. Treasury yields edged higher again on Wednesday, after the longer-dated 10-year and 30-year government debt in August notched their largest monthly yield rises since March.

What yields are doing
  • The 10-year Treasury note yield
    TMUBMUSD10Y,
    1.323%

    was at 1.314%, compared with 1.303% on Tuesday at 3 p.m. Eastern Time. Yields move opposite to prices.

  • The 30-year Treasury bond
    TMUBMUSD30Y,
    1.943%

    was yielding 1.936%, versus 1.927% a day ago.

  • The 2-year Treasury note yields
    TMUBMUSD02Y,
    0.211%

    0.211%, compared with 0.203% Tuesday.

What’s driving the market?

Investors are focused on the state of U.S. employment, with a private-sector report from Automatic Data Processing for August due later Wednesday, drawing attention, ahead of the more closely followed Friday jobs report from the U.S. Labor Department.

Economists are forecasting ADP to show a gain of 600,000 jobs in August, following a 330,000 gain in the previous month.

The labor market has gained heightened attention after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell indicated at the annual Jackson Hole central banker event last week that the Fed would be watching jobs reports to determine the timing of the start of the reduction of its bond purchases which supported financial markets during the pandemic.

In addition to the ADP report, at 8:15 a.m. Eastern Time Wednesday, market participants will be watching a final read of IHS Markit’s manufacturing purchasing managers index, or PMI, for August at 9:45 a.m. The more closely watched comparable report from the Institute for Supply Management will be released 15 minutes later.

On Wednesday, the 10-year German bund rate
TMBMKDE-10Y,
-0.354%

was trading at -0.365%, compared with -0.400% on Tuesday and -0.421% to start the week.

What analysts are saying

“We can debate all we want on where US bond yields will go but there has been and will continue to be looking forward a large influence from the direction of European yields,” wrote Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group, in a daily research note.