U.S. Treasuries jump after Q2 GDP meets market expectations; FOMC members’ speeches eyed

The U.S. Treasuries gained during Thursday’s evening session after the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) for the second quarter of this year, remained unchanged, meeting market expectations as well. However, the weekly initial jobless claims, disappointed, worsening beyond anticipations.

In addition, Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) members Kaplan, Bullard, Clarida, Daly and Kashkari are all scheduled to deliver their respective speeches through the day, which shall provide further detailed direction in the debt market.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield plunged 4 basis points to 1.692 percent, the super-long 30-year bond yield slumped nearly 5 basis points to 2.136 percent and the yield on the short-term 2-year plummeted nearly 3 basis points to 1.656 percent by 13:20GMT.

Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 2.0 percent in the second quarter of 2019 (table 1), according to the "third" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the first quarter, real GDP increased 3.1 percent.

The increase in real GDP in the second quarter reflected positive contributions from PCE, federal government spending, and state and local government spending that were partly offset by negative contributions from private inventory investment, exports, non-residential fixed investment, and residential fixed investment.

The price index for gross domestic purchases increased 2.2 percent in the second quarter, compared with an increase of 0.8 percent in the first quarter (table 4). The PCE price index increased 2.4 percent, compared with an increase of 0.4 percent. Excluding food and energy prices, the PCE price index increased 1.9 percent, compared with an increase of 1.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 Futures remained steady at 2,988.88 by 13:30GMT.