Treasuries Close Roughly Flat For Third Time This Week

(RTTNews) - Following the surge seen in the previous session, treasuries showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Friday.

Bond prices gave back ground after an early advance and spent the rest of the day lingering near the unchanged line. The yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, edged down by less than a basis point to 4.206 percent.

With the lackluster performance on the day, treasuries closed roughly flat for the third time this week.

The choppy trading came as traders were deprived of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report due to brief government shutdown that ended earlier this week.

The report, which is now scheduled to be released next Wednesday, is expected to show employment climbed by 70,000 jobs in January after rising by 50,000 jobs in December. The unemployment rate is expected to hold at 4.4 percent.

Meanwhile, bond traders largely shrugged off a report from the University of Michigan showing consumer sentiment in the U.S. has unexpectedly seen a continued improvement in the month of February.

The University of Michigan said its consumer sentiment index rose to 57.3 in February after jumping to 56.4 in January. Economists had expected the index to dip to 55.5.

With the unexpected increase, the consumer sentiment index reached its highest level since hitting 58.2 in August 2025.

The University of Michigan also said year-ahead inflation expectations tumbled to 3.5 percent in February from 4.0 percent in January.

Year-ahead inflation expectations dropped to their lowest level since January 2025 but still exceed the readings seen in 2024 and the 2.3-3.0 percent range seen in the two years pre-pandemic.

Meanwhile, the report said long-run inflation expectations inched up for the second straight month, ticking up to 3.4 percent in February from 3.3 percent in January.

Next week's trading may be impacted by reaction to the delayed monthly jobs report along with reports on retail sales and consumer prices.