Treasury yields edge lower as stimulus talks drag

U.S. government debt prices were slightly higher Thursday morning as talks between Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over a new fiscal stimulus package dragged on.

At around 2:15 a.m. ET, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note slid to 0.8126% while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond fell to 1.6175%. Yields move inversely to prices.

Pelosi and Mnuchin will meet again Thursday as they try to hammer out a deal on a fresh coronavirus aid bill before the Nov. 3 election.

“The Speaker & Secretary Mnuchin spoke today at 2:30 pm for 48 minutes. Today’s conversation brings us closer to being able to put pen to paper to write legislation,” Pelosi’s Deputy Chief of Staff Drew Hammill wrote on Twitter just after Wednesday’s closing bell on Wall Street.

National security officials announced Wednesday night that both Iran and Russia had obtained U.S. voter registration data and sought to influence public opinion and intimidate voters ahead of the election.

The Labor Department’s latest jobless claims data will be in focus Thursday, with last week’s figures due for publication at 8:30 a.m. ET and initial filings expected to come in at 860,000.

First-time unemployment claims jumped to 898,000, their highest since mid-August, for the week ended Oct. 10.

September’s existing home sales data is due at 10 a.m. ET, while an FDA hearing on Covid-19 vaccines also gets underway at 10 a.m.

Auctions will be held Thursday for $30 billion of 4-week Treasury bills and $35 billion of 8-week bills, along with $17 billion of 5-year TIPS.