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

The U.S. Treasuries slightly gained during Thursday’s afternoon session, ahead of the country’s weekly initial jobless claims, besides, the Philly Fed and Conference Board’s Leading indices, all scheduled to be released today by 12:30GMT.

Also, FOMC members Bostic and Williams are due to deliver their respective speeches today at 13:30GMT and 18:15GMT, in addition to the 10-year TIPS auction at 17:00GMT.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield slipped 1/2 basis point to 2.057 percent, the super-long 30-year bond yields remained flat at 2.573 percent and the yield on the short-term 2-year traded 1 basis point lower at 1.826 percent by 09:45GMT.

Market participants returned to risk-off mode today with Asian bourses performing poorly and European equity markets opening lower amid fears over a further escalation in the US-China trade dispute, Eurobank Economic Analysis & Financial Markets Research reported.

Market concerns that the prolonged US-China trade dispute could hurt corporate earnings and disappointing data yesterday from both sides of the Atlantic, have also weighed on market sentiment towards risky assets.

Against this background, US Treasuries gained and European government bonds followed suit with periphery markets outperforming Bunds. In FX markets, the USD weakened on lower UST yields, the report added.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 Futures remained tad -0.14 percent lower at 2,980.88 by 09:50GMT