U.S. government bond yields ticked higher after new data showed a big jump in hiring in March, giving investors further cause for optimism about the economic outlook.
In recent trading, the yield on the benchmark U.S. Treasury note was 1.704%, according to Tradeweb, compared with 1.680% Thursday.
Yields, which rise when prices fall, climbed after the Labor Department said employers added 916,000 jobs. That was the largest gain since August and above the forecast of economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal, who had anticipated an increase of 675,000 jobs.
With the U.S. stock market closed, Friday’s bond market session will be abbreviated. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, or Sifma, has recommended that the market close at 12 p.m. ET because of the Good Friday holiday. Stock-index futures did trade Friday morning and extended gains after the employment report.
At a headline level, the jobs report is “quite encouraging” and “even when you look at the details there’s even more reasons to be encouraged,” said Thomas Simons, senior vice president and money-market economist in the fixed-income group at Jefferies LLC.
