U.S. sovereign bond prices were higher Wednesday after the release of labor turnover and services data and as investors digested an auction of 10-year Treasury notes.
The Treasury Department auctioned $20 billion in 10-year notes at a high yield of 1.702 percent.
The bid-to-cover ratio, an indicator of demand, was 2.70, above a 10-auction average of 2.62.
Indirect bidders, which include major central banks, were awarded 73.6 percent, the largest on record and above a recent average 63 percent.
Direct bidders, which includes domestic money managers, bought 7.2 percent, below an average of 12 percent.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to its price, traded lower at 1.7039 percent after the sale, and briefly hit a session low. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was also lower at 2.5130 percent. Two-year note yields were lower at 0.7712 percent.
Treasurys
Job openings and labor turnover (JOLTs) data for April showed openings totaled 5.8 million, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said. Economists expected the number to come in at 5.7 million.
Overseas, the 10-year German bund yielded 0.058 percent after touching a record low of about 0.054 percent.