TREASURIES-US yields climb as June payrolls back patient Fed

BY Reuters | ECONOMIC | 07/03/25 11:53 AM EDT

(Adds new comment, more U.S. data, bullets, updates yields)

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss

NEW YORK, July 3 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury yields rose on Thursday after data showed the world's largest economy created more jobs than expected last month, supporting the Federal Reserve's patient stance on cutting interest rates.

In late morning trading, U.S. two-year yields, which track interest rate expectations, rose 8.5 basis points to 3.874% , while the benchmark 10-year yield gained 4.1 bps to 4.334%. Volume has thinned, however, following the nonfarm payrolls report, with U.S. bond markets closed on Friday for the July 4th holiday. On the political front, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives advanced President Donald Trump's massive "One Big Beautiful Bill" toward a final yes-or-no vote on Thursday, overcoming internal party divisions over its cost.

The bill, if approved, would raise the debt ceiling by $5 trillion, which will allow the U.S. Treasury to increase bill auction sizes in the coming weeks.

But Thursday's jobs report was the market's focus.

The report showed U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased by 147,000 jobs last month after an upwardly revised 144,000 gain in May. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast payrolls rising 110,000 following a previously reported 139,000 gain in May.

The unemployment rate fell to 4.1% from 4.2% in May. Economists had expected the jobless rate to tick up to 4.3%. The headline numbers, however, obscure weaker details of the report, analysts said.

Stan Shipley, fixed income strategist at Evercore ISI, pointed to state and local government employment accounting for 50% of the overall gain. He also added that private service job gains were only 68,000 and private goods producing jobs advanced just 6,000, while temporary employment slipped. The odds of a July cut shrank to 4.7% after the jobs data, from about 25% before the report's release. Chances of a September easing also dropped to 75%, compared with 98% just before. There were only about 50 bps rate declines priced in 2025, from about 67 bps before the report.

"You look at it at the headline number level and conclude that the fears around the softer labor markets to this point have continued to be worse than the reality," said Jim Baird, chief investment officer, at Plante Moran Financial Advisors at Southfield, Michigan.

"The job market appears to be hanging in there. I'd say that you have to look at the next layer of the data and when you see the pretty marked slowdown in job creation in the private sector, there is still a cautionary note there." The yield curve flattened after the data, with the spread between two-year and 10-year yields at 45.4 bps compared with 49.2 bps late Wednesday, as the bond market priced in a likely delay in Fed easing. Other economic data such as weekly jobless claims and services sector index showed a still solid economy. Initial claims fell to 233k in the last week of June, the lowest since mid-May, from 237,000 in the previous week, suggesting that the layoff rate remained low.

U.S. services sector activity, on the other hand,

picked up

in June as orders rebounded, but employment contracted for the third time this year, underscoring the impact of policy uncertainty on businesses.

The Institute for Supply Management's (ISM) nonmanufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) increased to 50.8 last month from 49.9 in May. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the services PMI rising to 50.5. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Additional reporting by Medha Singh; Editing by Alex Richardson Chizu Nomiyama and Nick Zieminski)

In general the bond market is volatile, and fixed income securities carry interest rate risk. (As interest rates rise, bond prices usually fall, and vice versa. This effect is usually more pronounced for longer-term securities.) Fixed income securities also carry inflation risk and credit and default risks for both issuers and counterparties. Unlike individual bonds, most bond funds do not have a maturity date, so avoiding losses caused by price volatility by holding them until maturity is not possible.

Lower-quality debt securities generally offer higher yields, but also involve greater risk of default or price changes due to potential changes in the credit quality of the issuer. Any fixed income security sold or redeemed prior to maturity may be subject to loss.

Before investing, consider the funds' investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. Contact Fidelity for a prospectus or, if available, a summary prospectus containing this information. Read it carefully.

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