The U.S. 10-year Treasury rose on Thursday as investors looked ahead to remarks from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed more than 6 basis points at 3.839%, while the yield on the 2-year Treasury added almost 6 basis points to 3.98%.
Yields and prices move in opposite directions. One basis point equals 0.01%.
Powell is set to give a speech at the annual Jackson Hole symposium on Friday. His comments come after the release of minutes from the central bank’s July policy meeting.
The minutes showed the “vast majority” of Fed officials “observed that, if the data continued to come in about as expected, it would likely be appropriate to ease policy at the next meeting.”
Market participants are firmly pricing in an interest rate cut at the U.S. central bank’s next meeting. Traders are currently pricing in a roughly 66% chance of a 25-basis-point rate cut in September, with just over one-third pricing in a 50-basis-point rate cut, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool.
Jobless claims data released Thursday came in slightly higher than expected by economists polled by Dow Jones. That can add to a growing view that the labor market is not as strong as once believed, a theory bolstered on Wednesday when nonfarm payroll growth was revised down by 818,000.
Thursday’s leg up comes after yields slid in the previous day.