U.S Treasuries flat ahead of payroll data

The U.S. Treasuries were trading nearly flat on Friday as investors await April non-farm payroll data. The yield on the benchmark 10-year bonds, which moves inversely to its price stood unchanged at 1.747 pct and the yields on 2-year bonds rose 1 bps to 0.730 pct by 1045 GMT.

The April Labour Department employment situation report will be released on Friday (1230 GMT), in which non-farm payrolls is expected to increase 200k, from prior 215k in March. Alongside no change is anticipated in the unemployment rate of 5.0 pct. On the other hand, the U.S government bonds have been closely following developments in oil markets because of their impact on inflation expectations. Moreover, the crude oil prices tumbled overnight on profit booking and surging dollar that at least temporarily outweighed output after wildfire in Canada disrupted its oil sands production, while escalating fighting in Libya threatened the North African nation's output. The International benchmark Brent futures fell 0.62 pct to $44.74 and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) dipped 0.56 pct to $ 44.07 by 1045 GMT.

Yesterday, the U.S. Initial jobless claims increased 17k to 274k for the week ending 30 April, above expectations for a 262k result, from unrevised 257k in the previous week. The 4-week average was reported at 258k, from the unrevised 256k reading seen in the week prior. Meanwhile, continuing claims for week ending 23 April decreased to 2.121 million, as compared to the revised 2.129 million, previous was 2.130 million. The insured unemployment rate decreased to 1.5 pct, down from 1.6 pct.

Meanwhile, S&P 500 Futures fell 0.24 pts to 2,039 by 1045 GMT.