U.S. Treasury yields moved slightly lower Friday as investors digested the latest tariff reprieve and awaited the nonfarm payrolls report.
At 6:12 a.m. ET, the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield fell 1 basis point to 4.269%. The 2-year Treasury yield was also down 1 basis point at 3.95%.
One basis point is equal to 0.01% and yields and prices move in opposite directions.
Investors are looking ahead to the week’s big data release, the nonfarm payrolls report, due to be published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics at 8:30 a.m. ET.
The closely watched report reflects the change in the number of employed workers in the country, offering clues as to the strength of the U.S. economy.
Economists are expecting 170,000 jobs to have been added in February — up from 143,000 the previous month — with the unemployment rate steady at 4%, according to a Dow Jones poll.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is expected to speak later in the day, which investors will monitor closely for hints about future monetary policy.
Traders are also mulling U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest tariff reprieve. Goods imported from Canada and Mexico into the U.S., and which comply with the North American trade agreement known as the USMCA, will be temporarily excluded from 25% tariffs, a White House official said on Thursday. The reprieve will last until April 2.
“Markets are all over the place trying to price tariff impacts, which is really hard to do when the goal post moves, disappears, and morphs by the second,” Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group, said.
