Traders Use Jobs Report to Run Bonds Higher

On a thin, illiquid day, traders took the bond market's early gains -- founded on the weak employment report -- and ran the market higher in the latter hours of trading. The initially reluctant market managed to push the 30-year bond up 1 3/32 to close at 94 31/32, yielding 5.60%.

If anything, today's data allowed the long bond to bounce off its near-term low of around 5.70%, now reached twice in the last 30 days. Impending Treasury paydowns resulting from tax receipts, plus the anticipation of renewed foreign interest, might provide a bottom for the market in the coming weeks.

June bond futures closed up 1 2/32 to 121, helped along by technical buying. Short covering ensued after this morning's data defined the high yield of the range, just as it did with the release of the February jobs report. GovPX volume was predictably light, with only 28% of the usual Friday first-quarter activity. ...