U.S. government debt prices were higher on Friday morning ahead of President Donald Trump’s press conference “on China”, which markets expect to further sour relations between the world’s two largest economies.
At around 4:10 a.m. ET, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was down at 0.6640% and the yield on the 30-year bond fell to 1.4288%. Yields move inversely to prices.
President Trump said Thursday that he would hold a news conference “on China” without divulging details of the content. Wall Street took the hint to sell off in the final hour of trading.
The White House has been ratcheting up pressure on Beijing for weeks over blame for the coronavirus and, more recently, a new security law for Hong Kong that threatens the special administrative region’s autonomy, according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Another 2.123 million Americans filed first-time jobless claims last week, the Labor Department said on Thursday. More than 40 million Americans have now filed for unemployment since the pandemic was declared in mid-March.
A revision from the Commerce Department Thursday also revealed that the U.S economy shrank 5% in the first quarter, versus a preliminary reading of a 4.8% decline.
April’s personal income and spending data is due at 8:30 a.m. ET on Friday along with PCE (personal consumption expenditure) price index readings.
There are no Treasury auctions scheduled for Friday.