U.S. Treasury yields declined on Friday as investors awaited key jobs data that could affect future Federal Reserve interest rate decisions.
At 5:48 a.m. ET, the 10-year Treasury was trading at 3.859% after declining by 6 basis points. The yield on the 2-year Treasury was down by over 6 basis points to 4.843%.
Yields and prices move in opposite directions and one basis point equals 0.01%.
Several key jobs data points are expected on Friday. Those include February’s nonfarm payroll report, which tracks how many jobs the economy created or lost. According to a Dow Jones survey, economists are expecting 225,000 jobs to have been added throughout the month.
February’s unemployment rate is also due to be published, with surveyed economists anticipating no changes to January’s level of 3.4%.
As a tight labor market is often associated with high levels of inflation, investors will be looking to the data for hints about the state of the U.S. economy.
The Fed has been hiking interest rates in an effort to cool the economy, including the labor market, and ease inflation. The fresh figures could therefore also provide clues about the impact of the central bank’s monetary policy.
That comes as investors consider the Fed’s next interest rate policy moves. Many are expecting the central bank to increase the pace of rate hikes again and announce a 50 basis point increase at its next meeting later this month.
Speaking before Congress earlier this week, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell indicated that such decisions would be data-dependent.
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