NEW YORK: US Treasuries yields rose on Thursday due to poor demand at a $13 billion auction of 30-year bonds and a smaller-than-expected rise in weekly jobless claims that soothed some worries about domestic jobs growth.
Greece making a 450 million euro loan payment to the International Monetary Fund also reduced earlier safety bids for US government debt, as it supported the view the cash-strapped nation will obtain further aid from its lenders.
The bond market has been choppy since last week's disappointing payrolls report and on differing views among Federal Reserve officials on the timing of a possible liftoff in US interest rates.
"It's been a tough trade. People have a wait-and-see approach. They are shying away," said Justin Lederer, Treasuries strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald in New York.
Tepid bidding at the latest 30-year bond sale resulted in a yield of 2.598 percent, about 3 basis points higher than what traders had expected.
US yields fell earlier as the German 10-year Bund yield fell to a record low of 0.151 percent, more than 1.75 percentage points below its US counterpart.
European yields have fallen since the European Central Bank embarked on its 1.1 trillion euro bond purchase program aimed at combating deflation.
While the euro zone economy has struggled, the United States has been on a modest growth track with steady reduction in unemployment.
This has raised discussion at the Fed whether it may be time to end its near-zero interest rate policy it adopted at the end of 2008.
On Thursday, the Labor Department said workers filing for first-time jobless benefits totaled 281,000 last week, fewer than what analysts had forecast.
The four-week average of claims fell to its lowest since 2000.
This gauge of labor conditions followed a disappointing March nonfarm payrolls report that showed a sharp deceleration in hirings. "On the margin, we might not see another weak jobs report," said Larry Milstein, head of government and agency trading at R.W. Pressprich & Co. in New York. In late afternoon trading, the benchmark 10-year yield was up 6.5 basis points at 1.960 percent after hitting its highest in over a week at 1.965 percent, Reuters data showed.
The 30-year yield was last 2.595 percent, up 7.7 basis points from late Wednesday after touching its highest yield its about three weeks at 2.607 percent.
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