Treasury yields little changed ahead of key jobs report

U.S. Treasury yields held steady on Friday as markets reopened after the July 4 holiday and investors awaited the latest nonfarm payroll data.

At 3:27 a.m. ET, the yield on the 10-year Treasury was up by less than one basis point to 4.3567%. The 2-year Treasury yield was last at 4.6934% after rising by less than one basis point.

Yields and prices move in opposite directions. One basis point is equivalent to 0.01%.

Key economic data is expected in form of the June jobs report on Friday.

The report is expected to show that nonfarm payrolls added 200,000 jobs in June, according to economists polled by Dow Jones. That would be below May’s reported increase of 272,000.

Economists are also expecting the unemployment rate to hold steady at 4%, and for hourly wages to have increased 0.3% from May and 3.9% from 12 months earlier.  

The report comes after data released earlier in the week by ADP showed that private payrolls grew by less than expected in June. Weekly initial jobless claims meanwhile came in higher than anticipated.

Many investors are hoping that Friday’s jobs data will indicate that the labor market and economy are cooling, as this could support the case for Federal Reserve interest rate cuts.

Central bank policymakers have repeatedly said that they are looking for more data evidence of the economy and inflation easing before moving to cut rates, with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell reiterating that sentiment just this week.   

Powell noted that progress had been made on inflation coming down, but that the central bank wanted to be more confident that it was returning to the 2% target before loosening monetary policy.

Fresh inflation data is due to be released next week.