Bonds

Bonds buoyed by stocks drop, disappointing US data

Treasurys


U.S. Treasury debt prices jumped on Friday, with long maturities getting the largest lift from investors exiting drooping stock markets and positioning portfolios ahead of a Federal Reserve policymakers' meeting next week.

Prices, including sharp gains that left yields on 30-year Treasurys near lows not seen in a year, were also helped by month-end purchases of government debt and disappointment among traders over soft spots in U.S. durable goods data.

Benchmark 10-year yields fell back below 2.50 percent.

Debt prices rose in early trading, despite a heftier-than-forecast 0.7 percent overall increase during June of orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured items. Analysts and traders focused on weaknesses in airline and other sectors that shook optimism about U.S. economic growth.

The 30-year Treasury bond last traded up 1-1/32 in price, cutting its yield to 3.235 percent, after peaking at 3.304 percent in overseas trading ahead of the durable goods report.

Ten-year Treasurys were up 11/32 in price to yield 2.469 percent. The yield had been at 2.503 percent just before the durable goods report.

The reported increase in orders for durable goods, which range from toasters to aircraft that are meant to last three years or more, was above economists' expectations for a 0.5 percent rise and followed a 1.0 percent drop in May.

Non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, rebounded 1.4 percent after declining 1.2 percent the prior month. The gain in the so-called core capital goods outpaced economists' expectations for only a 0.5 percent increase.

Many Treasury traders had an eye to next week, when reports on American employment and gross domestic product will be issued, Vogel said. Both reports often move markets.

—By Reuters