U.S. government debt prices rose on Thursday as investors digested several pieces of data and continued digesting the Federal Reserve's decision on Wednesday to keep rates unchanged and the lower its projection of four hikes this year to two.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dipped to 1.898 percent, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond also fell to 2.682 percent. A bond's yield moves inversely to its price.
The two-year note yield, however, climbed to 0.871 percent.
Treasurys
On the data front, initial jobless claims came in at 265,000, slightly below the expected 268,000.
The Philly Fed survey came in at 12.4 for March, well above the February number of -2.8. Leading indicators came in slightly below estimates, posting a 0.1 percent gain last month, while the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed an increase in January.
"Bottom line as the Philly Fed said, the index for March "suggests a pickup in general activity in March." Likely helping was the rebound in markets from the mid February lows, the US dollar no longer rallying and some mean reversion after a half a year of manufacturing declines," Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at The Lindsey Group, said in a note.
Thursday will also see the auction of $11 billion in 10-year TIPS.
In oil markets, Brent crude traded at $41.33 a barrel, up 2.5 percent, while U.S. crude was at $39.97 up 3.9 percent.