The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
U.S. Treasury yields dipped on Thursday morning, as traders awaited news on congressional negotiations over a coronavirus stimulus package.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 0.943%, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond dipped to 1.696%. Yields move inversely to prices.
First-time claims for unemployment benefits totaled 712,000 last week, compared to the estimate of 780,000 from a Dow Jones survey of economists, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The pace of new jobless claims reached their lowest level of the pandemic crisis era last week.
U.S. government bonds yields pulled back on Thursday, after reaching 0.95% in the previous session, as uncertainty remained as to whether another round of pandemic relief funding would be approved in Congress before the end of the year.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer issued a joint statement on Wednesday, calling on Republicans to work with them on a stimulus package, using a $908 billion bipartisan proposal from Senate moderates as a starting point.
However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already rejected the $908 billion proposal and has endorsed a spending plan of around $500 billion.
The number of people in hospital in the U.S. sick with the coronavirus has topped 100,000, according to data compiled by the Covid Tracking Project, which is run by journalists at The Atlantic.
Money Report
Auctions will be held on Thursday for $30 billion of 4-week bills and $35 billion of 8-week bills.
— CNBC's Jesse Pound contributed to this article.
