2018.08.0915:20:00UTC+00Treasuries Move Notably Higher After Ending Previous Session Roughly Flat

After ending the previous session roughly flat, treasuries showed a notable move to the upside during trading on Thursday.

Bond prices moved higher early in the session and remained firmly positive throughout the day. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell by 3.6 basis points to 2.935 percent.

The strength among treasuries came following the release of several U.S. economic reports after several days on the U.S. economic front.

In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department released a report showing first-time claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly edged lower in the week ended August 4th.

The report said initial jobless claims dipped to 213,000, a decrease of 6,000 from the previous week's revised level of 219,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to inch up to 220,000 from the 218,000 originally reported for the previous week.

A separate report released by the Labor Department showed producer prices unexpectedly came in unchanged in the month of July.

The Labor Department said its producer price index was unchanged in July after rising by 0.3 percent in June. Economists had expected producer prices to increase by 0.2 percent.

Excluding food and energy prices, the core producer price index inched up by 0.1 percent in July after climbing by 0.3 percent in the previous month. Core prices had been expected to rise by 0.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department released a report showing a modest uptick in wholesale inventories in the month of June.

Traders largely shrugged off the results of the Treasury Department's auction of $18 billion worth of thirty-year bonds, which attracted slightly below average demand.

The thirty-year bond auction drew a high yield of 3.090 percent and a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.27, while the ten previous thirty-year bond auctions had an average bid-to-cover ratio of 2.35.

The bid-to-cover ratio is a measure of demand that indicates the amount of bids for each dollar worth of securities being sold.

Trading on Friday may be impacted by reaction to the Labor Department's report on consumer prices in the month of July. Consumer prices and core consumer prices are both expected to rise by 0.2 percent.