U.S. government debt yields fell Thursday after President Donald Trump refused to set a timeline for levying tariffs on another $325 billion of Chinese goods and jobless data showed more Americans filing for unemployment benefits than expected.
At around 2:17 p.m. ET, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to price, was lower at 2.08%, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was down to around 2.597%.
Meanwhile, Wednesday's consumer price index data rose a seasonally adjusted 0.1% in May, while costs excluding volatile energy and food components also rose 0.1%.
Prices climbed 1.8% from the previous year while the so-called core gauge rose 2%, both falling short of economists' expectations.
The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits rose last week and fostered mounting worries that the labor market is losing steam after job growth decelerated in May. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 222,000 for the week ended June 8, the Labor Department said on Thursday.
The Treasury Department auctioned $16 billion in 30-year bonds at a high yield of 2.607%. The bid-to-cover ratio, an indicator of demand, was 2.32. Indirect bidders, which include major central banks, were awarded 60.8%. Direct bidders, which includes domestic money managers, bought 15.1%.