NEW YORK: US Treasuries prices were mostly flat on Wednesday after a weaker-than-expected reading on US private payrolls growth contrasted with stronger-than-expected US services sector data and created uncertainty ahead of Friday's US jobs report.
US private employers added 212,000 jobs last month, lower than economists' expectations for 220,000, according to a Reuters poll. The figure was also lower than January's upwardly revised figure of 250,000.
The Institute for Supply Management, meanwhile, said its services index was 56.9 in February, up slightly from 56.7 in January and beating analysts' expectation for a reading of 56.5, according to a Reuters poll. Economists polled by Reuters expect the US nonfarm payrolls report to show employers added 240,000 jobs in February, down from 257,000 in January. Wednesday's reports reinforced traders' reluctance to make major bets ahead of the jobs data. "The data today probably increased the angst around the nonfarm payrolls number," said David Coard, head of fixed-income sales and trading at Williams Capital in New York.
The European Central Bank meets on Thursday, which will give investors more details on its 1 trillion euro ($1.118 trillion) government bond-buying program, which begins this month.
The ECB meeting underscored the attractiveness of higher US Treasury yields compared to European yields and helped support Treasuries prices. German 10-year Bund yields were last at 0.37 percent, not far from a record low of 0.28 percent touched on Feb. 26.
The ECB meeting "makes the market focus more on global fixed income, and whenever you're thinking of global fixed income now, Treasuries stand out as much higher yield," said Jake Lowery, portfolio manager at Voya Investment Management in Atlanta.
Benchmark 10-year US Treasury notes were last down 1/32 in price to yield 2.13 percent, from a yield of 2.12 percent late Tuesday. US 30-year bonds were last down 3/32 in price to yield 2.72 percent, from a yield of 2.71 percent late Tuesday.
US two-year notes were last roughly flat in price to yield 0.68 percent, unchanging in yield from late Tuesday. On Wall Street, US stocks were lower, with the benchmark S&P 500 stock index last down 0.8 percent.
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