2019.03.2115:24:00UTC+00Treasuries Close Roughly Flat After Seeing Initial Strength

After initially extending Wednesday's late-day rally, treasuries gave back ground over the course of the trading session on Thursday.

Bond prices pulled back well off their best levels of the day before ending the session roughly flat. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, crept up by less than a basis point to 2.537 percent after hitting a low of 2.50 percent.

The pullback by treasuries came as traders cashed in on recent strength in the bond markets after the ten-year yield hit its lowest intraday level in well over a year.

Treasuries initially moved higher as traders continued to react to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday, as the central bank indicated it no longer expects to raise interest rates this year.

Buying interest waned shortly after the start of trading, however, as traders reacted to a batch of largely upbeat U.S. economic data as well as a rally by stocks on Wall Street.

Early in the day, the Labor Department released a report showing a bigger than expected drop in initial jobless claims in the week ended March 16th.

The report said initial jobless claims dropped to 221,000, a decrease of 9,000 from the previous week's revised level of 230,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to dip to 225,000 from the 229,000 originally reported for the previous week.

A separate report from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve showed regional manufacturing activity rebounded more than expected in March after an unexpected contraction in February.

Additionally, the Conference Board also released a report showing a slightly bigger than expected increase by its reading on leading U.S. economic indicators.

The Conference Board said its leading economic index edged up by 0.2 percent after revised data showed no change in January. Economists had expected the index to inch up by 0.1 percent.

A report on existing home sales in the month of February may attract some attention on Friday along with a separate report on wholesale inventories in January.