NEW YORK: US Treasuries prices rose on Friday, helped by US jobs data for April that fueled bets Federal Reserve policymakers will not begin hiking interest rates until late in 2015.
It was a second day of increases for Treasuries after an unusually long, eight-session losing streak, with most gains coming after the US government reported as-expected jobs growth during April.
US nonfarm payrolls increased by 223,000, just below the 224,000 economists polled by Reuters had expected.
The unemployment rate dropped to 5.4 percent in April, near a seven-year low.
Wage growth, a favored metric of Fed policymakers, was softer than expected.
The March report was revised to show a gain of 85,000 jobs instead of the 126,000 previously reported, suggesting weakness that was seen as discouraging rate hikes as early as June, analysts and traders said.
"We got 'Goldilocks' employment data that has given investors a little bit of comfort to put some exposures back on because it keeps the Fed away from liftoff a little longer," said Guy Haselmann, head of US interest rate strategy at Bank of Nova Scotia in New York.
"The market is reading it that the Fed won't raise rates in June," said Mary Ann Hurley, vice president in fixed income trading at D.A. Davidson in Seattle.
Traders see a 51 percent chance the first Fed rate hike will come in December 2015, based on CME FedWatch, which tracks rate expectations using its Fed funds futures contracts.
Treasuries were also benefiting from the absence of big corporate bond deals by Apple Inc and others that early this week drove sales of Treasuries and a steadying in European yields, Haselmann said. German 10-year Bunds, which set the standard for euro zone borrowing costs, were little changed in price and yielding about 0.55 percent, having risen to nearly 0.80 percent on Thursday.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury note was last up 17/32 to yield 2.1245 percent.
The 30-year bond, which earlier this week yielded more than 3 percent for the first time in 2015, was last yielding 2.8725 percent on a price increase of 21/32.
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