German bunds trade modestly lower ahead of U.S. jobs data; ECB policy decision in focus

The German bunds traded significantly lower Thursday as investors await the Friday's US jobs data as it could be used to anticipate the Fed's most likely step to raise interest rate.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year bond, which moves inversely to its price, rose 1 basis point to -0.059 percent, the yield on long-term 30-year note bounced 1-1/2 basis points to 0.493 percent and the yield on short-term 3-year bond climbed 1/2 basis point to -0.643 percent by 09:20 GMT.

The August Labour Department employment situation report will be released on Friday at 12:30 GMT. We foresee that the overall non-farm payrolls will increase +180k in August, higher than the market expectations of +175k increase, as compared to the +255k reading seen in July, alongside a decrease in the unemployment rate to 4.8 percent, in the line of market expectations for 4.8 percent result.

Lastly, investors will remain keen to focus on the next week's ECB meeting, when there is a chance of another small deposit rate cut.

Meanwhile, the German stock index DAX Index traded 0.21 percent higher at 10,556 by 09:20 GMT.