Treasurys regain lost ground after slipping on better-than-expected unemployment claims

Treasurys prices mixed on better economic news

NEW YORK — Treasury bonds barely budged on Thursday, following slightly better news on the economy.

The Labor Department said first-time applications for unemployment benefits fell to 453,000 in the week to Sep. 25. That’s the third drop in four weeks.

The Commerce Department also nudged up its estimate of economic growth this spring. The economy expanded 1.7 percent in the second quarter, the government said, compared with a previous estimate of 1.6 percent.

Long-term Treasury prices slipped after the unemployment claims report but soon rebounded.

In afternoon trading, the 10-year note dropped 3.12 cents to $100.96, lifting the yield to 2.51 percent from 2.50 percent late Wednesday. Bond yields move in the opposite direction from prices. The bond maturing in 2040 moved up slightly to $103.37. Its 3.68 percent yield was the same as the day before.

Short-dated notes also inched up. The two-year note traded at $99.87, yielding 0.43 percent.

Treasury yields have fallen in recent weeks as bond traders expect the Federal Reserve will take new measures to prod the sluggish economy. The Fed is already recycling cash from its mortgage bonds into the Treasury market with the aim of lowering long-term interest rates, a way to encourage borrowing. As part of this effort, the Fed announced Thursday that it bought $2.2 billion in bonds maturing between 2021 and 2040.

In other trading, the three-month T-bill paid a yield of 0.15 percent at a discount of 0.16 percent.