U.S. Treasuries flat ahead of December non-farm payrolls, labour market report

The U.S. Treasuries continued to remain flat during Friday’s afternoon session ahead of the country’s non-farm payrolls data for the month of December, scheduled to be delivered today by 13:30GMT and the employment data for the similar period, also due for later today.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield remained flat at 1.855 percent, the super-long 30-year bond yield fell nearly 1 basis point to 2.322 percent and the yield on the short-term 2-year hovered around 1.586 percent by 13:00GMT.

The main event today will be the release of the December US labour market report, with non-farm payrolls expected to have risen by somewhat less than the 180k average for the first eleven months of the year, having leapt 266k in November partly thanks to returning GM strikers, Daiwa Capital Markets reported.

Given the weakness of the ISM survey, the manufacturing payroll numbers will be under scrutiny for signs of additional cyclical weakness heading into 2020. While revisions to the Household Survey will also be published and might have an impact on perceptions of the strength of the labour market last year, the unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 3.5 percent, the report added.

Finally, while growth in average hourly labour earnings is expected to move sideways at 3.1 percent y/y, these numbers will be watched for any signs of upwards pressure that might get the Fed excited about any new inflationary impulse, Daiwa further noted in the report.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 Futures remained tad 0.19 percent higher at 3,282.12 by 13:10GMT.