U.S. Treasuries gain ahead of FOMC members’ speeches, initial jobless claims

The U.S. Treasuries gained ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) member Brainard’s speech, due to be held later today and Kaplan’s speech, scheduled for May 31. Also, the initial jobless claims, due to be released later this week will provide further direction in the debt market.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury, slipped 1 basis point to 2.24 percent, the super-long 30-year bond yields fell nearly 1-1/2 basis points to 2.90 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year note traded tad 1/2 basis point lower at 1.29 percent by 11:00GMT.

Fed policymakers' current forecasts on key short-term rates signalled they expect two more rate increases by year-end. Off late, the futures market implied traders priced in an 83 percent chance of a quarter-point rate increase at the Fed's June 13-14 meeting, while they saw slightly less than a 50 percent shot of another hike by the end of 2017, CME Group's FedWatch tool showed.

For the remainder of the day, the focus is on the US data including personal income and spending for April and the CB’s consumer sentiment index for May.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 Futures traded 0.18 percent lower at 2,409.50 by 11:10GMT, while at 11:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly Dollar Strength Index remained neutral at 36.57 (a reading above +75 indicates a bullish trend, while that below -75 a bearish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex