Market Analysis

Bond markets are flat this morning after improving yesterday on comments by Fed Chair Bernanke that indicated that the economy is still on shaky ground due to the employment situation.  Addditionally, the 10 Year US Treasury note auction yesterday was the best bid in the history of tracking bid/cover ratios with a 3.72 bid/cover ($3.72 in bids for every $1 auctioned).  The yield on the 10 year note came in lower than anticpated at 3.9%, however, that yield is still significantly higher than the 3.7% range in which the 10 year note had been trading prior to the last run up which began on March 24.

In this morning's economic news, Initial Jobless Claims for the week ended 4/3/10 were up by 18,000.  The market had expected a 7,000 decrease.  Continuing Claims for the week ended 3/27/10 were down by 131,000.  The market had been expecting them to be down only by 51,000.