News
- U.S. Treasuries erased early gains and turned lower on Thursday as traders cut prices before the Treasury's 30-year bond sale.
Earlier, prices rose after the Labor Department reported an unexpected jump in the number of filers for initial jobless benefits last week. But those gains were lost as the market headed into the $13 billion 30-year auction, set for 1 p.m. (1700 GMT).
Ten-year notes US10YT=RR, up 10/32 earlier, reversed that gain and fell 4/32, their yields rising to 3.48 percent. In when-issued trading, 30-year bonds yielded 4.55 percent.
- Greek bond yields soared on Thursday, with short-dated paper coming under the most pressure, as markets priced in a greater probability that Greece would be forced to restructure its massive public debt.
The yield on two-year Greek bonds GR2YT=TWEB hit 18.4 percent, up around almost a full percentage point on the day, while five-year yields GR5YT=TWEB briefly topped 18 percent.
"All this talk of restructuring on Greece is really hitting sentiment now. The ECB seem to have disappeared from the market and the whole periphery is getting hit.
While the bond market had already priced in a high risk of restructuring in debt-laden Greece, comments from the German finance minister on Wednesday triggered fresh concern that holders of Greek debt could face losses.
The rise in yields was concentrated in the two- to five-year sector of the curve where capital losses resulting from any "haircut" on the bonds' face value would be greatest, though traders said wafer-thin liquidity was exaggerating price moves