U.S. Treasury yields were higher on Thursday as investors studied the latest weekly jobless claims, January durable goods orders and President Donald Trump’s most recent tariff threats.
The benchmark 10-year yield Treasury yield rose 3 basis points to 4.281%, and the 2-year Treasury yield was marginally higher at 4.074%.
Labor market data on Thursday was the latest report to suggest potential signs of economic softening. Jobless claims for the week ending Feb. 22 jumped to 242,000, up 22,000 from the previous week’s revised level, a Labor Department report said Thursday, and higher than the Dow Jones estimate from economists of 225,000.
January durable goods orders for machinery, cars, and appliances expected to last at least three years were up 3.1%, stronger than a consensus forecast among economists for 2.0% growth, while orders excluding volatile transportation equipment were unchanged, weaker than an estimate for 0.3% growth.
In yet another report, pending home sales in January dropped 4.6% from December to the lowest level since the National Association of Realtors began tracking the yardstick in 2001.
Investors are also concerned about U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest tariff threats. Proposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada will go into effect on March 4 and China, which already faces U.S. tariffs on its products, will be charged an additional 10% tariff on the same date, Trump said in a Truth Social post. At the first Cabinet meeting of his second term on Wednesday, the president said he intends to impose 25% duties on imports from the European Union.
“We’ll be announcing it very soon,” Trump told reporters, referring to measures against the EU. “It’ll be [a] 25% [tariff] generally speaking, and that will be on cars and all other things.”
Investors will next focus on the main data release of the week — the personal consumption expenditures index due Friday morning. The PCE is the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of U.S. inflation.
The Fed’s next meeting on monetary policy and interest rate decisions takes place on March 18-19.
