SINGAPORE, Oct 9 (Reuters) - U.S. 10-year Treasuries rose on Tuesday as a lacklustre performance by equities in the past couple of sessions helped ease selling pressure that had been triggered by a surprise drop in the U.S. jobless rate.
* Ten-year Treasuries rose about 9/32 in price to yield roughly 1.709 percent in Asia, down 3 basis points from late U.S. trade on Friday. The 10-year yield had hit a peak around 1.74 percent on Friday, the highest level in about two weeks.
The U.S. bond market was closed on Monday for the Columbus Day holiday, although the stock market remained open.
* U.S. equities have failed to gain traction even after data on Friday showed that the U.S. unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent in September, the lowest level since January 2009. The S&P 500 ended a tad lower on Friday and slipped 0.4 percent
on Monday.
* "The optimism that took hold after the U.S. jobs data has not lasted very long and you can see that in how equities have reacted," said Tomohisa Fujiki, interest rate strategist for BNP Paribas Securities in Tokyo.
* At the same time, the jobs data, along with upbeat readings on the manufacturing and services sectors released by the Institute for Supply Management last week, have helped ease concerns about the U.S. economy's outlook to some extent, Fujiki said.
Such indicators posed a contrast to data released in late September such as a weak reading on durable goods orders and a downward revision to second-quarter gross domestic product, he added.
(Reporting by Masayuki Kitano; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
((masayuki.kitano@thomsonreuters.com
+65-6417-4682)(RM:masayuki.kitano.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net
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Keywords: MARKETS TREASURIES ASIA/