U.S. Treasury yields rise with investors eyeing jobs data

U.S. Treasury bond yields rose Thursday as investors digested a weaker-than-expected jobs report and looked ahead to further economic data due this week.

The 10-year Treasury yield was less than 1 basis point lower at 4.178%. The 2-year Treasury note yield was up 2 basis points at 4.142%.

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

Initial jobless benefits for the week ending Nov. 30 came to 224,000, higher than the Dow Jones estimate for 215,000. On the other hand, the level of continuing claims, which run a week behind, edged lower by 25,000 to 1.871 million.

Meanwhile, a Census Bureau report released Thursday also revealed that the U.S. trade imbalance was lower than expected in October.

Traders will now be looking out for November’s nonfarm payrolls data, due out on Friday morning. The Dow Jones estimate forecasts that nonfarm payrolls increased by 12,000 last month to 214,000. Expectations also call for the unemployment rate rising to 4.2% in November from 4.1%.