U.S. Treasuries rally despite expectations of rise in April consumer inflation, retail sales

The U.S. Treasuries rallied Friday despite expectations of a rise in the country’s consumer price inflation and retail sales, for the month of March, due to be held later in the day.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury plunged nearly 2 basis points to 2.38 percent, the super-long 30-year bond yields slumped 1-1/2 basis points to 3.03 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year note traded 1-1/2 basis points lower at 1.34 percent by 11:50GMT.

Analysts at Nomura expect headline CPI to increase by 0.2 percent (0.249 percent) m/m in April after dropping in March.

"We expect both the core and headline CPI to rise 0.2 percent in April as much of the softness in March could be attributed to one-off factors, such as the drag from the unusually large decline in wireless services on core services inflation," FX Street reported, citing a quote from Nomura. 

US retail sales on-month witnessed a downtrend over the past three months, mainly caused by the decline in auto and petroleum sales. The consensus for the April figure is an optimistic forecast of 0.6 percent.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 Futures traded 0.15 percent lower at 2,387.88 by 11:50GMT, while at 11:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly Dollar Strength Index remained neutral at 88.86 (a reading above +75 indicates a bullish trend, while that below -75 a bearish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex