US Treasurys trade mixed after inflation data, 30-year bonds sale
U.S. government debt prices traded mixed on Thursday as investors digested key economic data and a Treasury Department sale.
The Treasury Department auctioned $15 billion in 30-year bonds at a high yield of 3.05 percent on Thursday. The bid-to-cover ratio, an indicator of demand, was 2.19, the weakest since November. This was the third offering of new supply this week. The first two sales saw weak demand.
Indirect bidders, which include major central banks, were awarded 59.1 percent, the smallest since November. Direct bidders, which includes domestic money managers, bought 5.3 percent, the smallest since February.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was marginally lower at 2.402 percent, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond held flat to 3.046 percent. Yields move inversely to prices.
Yields had traded lower across the board before the U.S. government released economic data.
The producer price index rose 0.5 percent in April, more than the expected increase of 0.2 percent. Initial jobless claims, meanwhile, totaled 236,000, below the expected 245,000.
Yields fell slightly on Wednesday on the back of President Donald Trump's firing of former FBI Director James Comey. It drew a storm of criticism, mostly from Democrats, that the move was aimed at blunting the agency's probe into the Trump presidential campaign's possible collusion with Russia to sway last year's election.
In oil markets, Brent crude traded at around $50.94 a barrel on Thursday, up 1.5 percent, while U.S. crude was around $48.03 a barrel, up 1.5 percent.
—Reuters contributed to this report.