2021.05.0519:11:00UTC+00Treasuries Close Roughly Flat After Recovering From Initial Weakness

Treasuries recovered from an initial move to the downside on Wednesday but showed a lack of direction over the remainder of the session.

Bond prices spent most of the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, edged down by less than a basis point to 1.584 percent.

The roughly flat close by treasuries came as the latest U.S. economic pointed to continued strength in the economy but came in below economist estimates.

Early in the day, payroll processor ADP released a report showing private sector job growth accelerated in the month of April but still came in below expectations.

ADP said private sector employment spiked by 742,000 jobs in April after surging by an upwardly revised 565,000 jobs in March.

However, economists had expected private sector employment to soar by 800,000 jobs compared to the jump of 517,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

The Institute for Supply Management also released a report showing an unexpected slowdown in the pace of growth in U.S. service sector activity in the month of April.

The ISM said its services PMI edged down to 62.7 in April after jumping to an all-time high of 63.7 in March. A reading above 50 still indicates growth in the service sector, but economists had expected the index to inch up to 64.3.

The unexpected drop by the services index comes after the ISM released a separate report earlier this week showing an unexpected slowdown in the pace of growth in U.S. manufacturing activity.

Trading activity on Thursday may be somewhat subdued ahead of the release of the closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday, although traders are still likely to keep an eye on a report on weekly jobless claims.