U.S. sovereign bond prices gained on Thursday, weighing on yields as oil prices rose in a shorted trading day for the Christmas holiday.
Bond markets will close at 2 p.m. ET on Thursday ahead of Christmas Day on Friday. Weekly jobless claims fell by 5,000 to 267,000.
Treasurys
Other markets including stocks and energy will also close early, shutting at 1 p.m. ET and 1:30 p.m. ET, respectively. Limited liquidity in markets tends to heighten the severity of market moves, particularly during the holiday periods of Christmas and New Year's Eve, when most Western markets will be closed.
U.S. 10-year Treasury yields fell early on Thursday to trade around 2.2410 percent, after closing at 2.264 percent on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, longer-dated 30-year bonds were up at 2.9632 percent after finishing at 2.998 percent in the previous session, after passing the 3 percent handle and hitting a one-week high earlier on Wednesday.
U.S. crude prices rose for a fourth straight session on Thursday, headed for a 9 percent weekly gain in the lead-up to Christmas, as the market tightened on the back of falling supplies and exports.
Front-month West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures traded at around $38 per barrel early on Thursday, set for the biggest weekly gain since early October. Internationally traded Brent futures were around $37.75 a barrel. Brent briefly went higher than U.S. crude, which regained a small premium this week for the first time in around a year.