BOND REPORT: Treasury Yields Remain Higher After Private-sector Payrolls Peek

Treasury yields clung to a modest rise Wednesday as investors parsed a report on private-sector payrolls for clues to official U.S. jobs data for July due at the end of the week.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose 1.8 basis points to 2.271%, while the 2-year note yield was flat at 1.343%. The yield on the 30-year U.S. Treasury bond , or long bond, rose 1.7 basis points to 2.875%. Yields rise as debt prices fall.

Payroll processor ADP said private-sector employers added 178,000 new jobs in July. While investors look to the report for clues to official employment data, which gauges job creation in the private and public sector.

But the ADP release tends to be a poor proxy, wrote analysts at UniCredit Bank, in a note. The report might attract interest, however, given an otherwise light data calendar, they said.

Yields declined Tuesday, with investors taking cues from a drop in oil prices and weak U.S. car sales, the UniCredit analysts said, likely setting the stage for some consolidation Wednesday, with Friday's nonfarm-payrolls data likely to be the main event for the week.

Economists surveyed by MarketWatch produced a consensus forecast for a 180,000 rise in July nonfarm payrolls, while the unemployment rate is predicted to tick down to 4.3% from 4.4% and average hourly earnings are seen rising 0.3% after a 0.2% rise in June.

Read:Ignoring Washington chaos, companies likely kept up strong hiring in July (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ignoring-washington-chaos-companies-likely-kept-up-strong-hiring-in-july-2017-07-30)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 02, 2017 08:46 ET (12:46 GMT)