Treasuries Close Modestly Higher After Seeing Early Weakness

(RTTNews) - After seeing early weakness, treasuries turned higher over the course of the trading session on Thursday amid a pullback on Wall Street.

Bond prices moved to the upside in afternoon trading and managed to end the day slightly higher. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, edged down by 1 basis point to 1.557 percent.

The turnaround by treasuries came as stocks came under pressure as the day progressed, led lower by German financial giant Deutsche Bank (DB).

Deutsche Bank fell sharply after Bloomberg reported that several hedge funds have withdrawn some excess cash and positions held at the lender.

Bloomberg called the move a sign of mounting concerns about doing business with Europe's largest investment bank.

Shares of Deutsche Bank, which have been under pressure amid news of billions of dollars in fines from the Justice Department, have plummeted by 6.9 percent.

Treasuries came under pressure early in the day after the Commerce Department released a report showing stronger than previously estimated GDP growth in the second quarter.

The report said second quarter GDP climbed by 1.4 percent compared to the previously reported 1.1 percent increase. Economists had expected the pace of GDP growth to be upwardly revised to 1.3 percent.

The Commerce Department said the stronger than previously estimated growth primarily reflected upward revisions to non-residential fixed investment, private inventory investment, and exports.

A separate report from the Labor Department showed a smaller than expected increase in initial jobless claims in the week ended September 24th.

The Labor Department said initial jobless claims edged up to 254,000, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week's revised level of 251,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to climb to 260,000.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors released a report showing a sharp pullback in pending home sales in the month of August.

NAR said its pending home sales index tumbled by 2.4 percent to 108.5 in August after surging up by 1.2 percent to a revised 111.2 in July. Economists had expected pending sales to come in roughly flat.

A pending home sale is one in which a contract was signed but not yet closed. Normally, it takes four to six weeks to close a contracted sale.

Trading on Friday may be impacted by reaction to reports on personal income and spending, consumer sentiment, and Chicago-area business activity.