Longer-dated US Treasury yields rise on jobs openings

NEW YORK, Dec 3 (Reuters) – Longer-dated US Treasury yields rose on Tuesday after labor market data showed an increasing number of unfilled jobs, but demand remained high at the short end as investors seeking safe haven from geopolitical uncertainty in Asia bought Treasuries.

US job openings increased moderately in October while layoffs declined, suggesting the labor market continued to slow in an orderly fashion. Job openings, a measure of labor demand, rose 7.744 million by the last day of October, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, on Tuesday. Layoffs decreased 169,000 to 1.633 million.

After South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law, the country’s currency tumbled to a two-year low and investors fled to low-risk assets such as Treasuries. The president agreed to lift the martial law decree after parliament rejected it.

The yield on the benchmark US 10-year Treasury note rose 0.5 basis point to 4.199%. The two-year US . Treasury yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations, fell 4.7 basis points to 4.151%.

The part of the US Treasury yield curve measuring the gap between yields on two- and 10-year Treasury notes , seen as an indicator of economic expectations, steepened to 4.6 basis points.

Two Federal Reserve policymakers on Tuesday said they believe inflation is heading down to the US central bank’s 2% target and the job market is solid, even as neither gave any clear steer on whether they’ll support another interest rate cut later this month.

Fed Governor Adriana Kugler and San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly did not indicate at public events on Tuesday whether they favor a rate cut at the central bank’s Dec. 17-18 policy meeting, but both said they will be looking closely at the release on Friday of the US employment report for November.

The odds of a 25-bp easing this month were at 72% on Tuesday afternoon, slightly down from 75% late on Monday, according to CME’s FedWatch.

On Monday, Fed Governor Christopher Waller said he was leaning toward another rate cut. Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday will give what are expected to his last public remarks before the meeting. Wednesday will also see additional job market data with the ADP National Employment Report.

“Yields went up a couple of basis points after the JOLTS report, but markets do not think a higher job creation number changes the Fed’s view as expressed by Governor Waller on Monday“, said Angelo Manolatos, macro strategist at Wells Fargo.

Lou Brien, strategist at DRW Trading in Chicago, also noted the safe haven effect. “There might have been a little bit of a bid in Treasuries, sort of a safety play there, because it looks like people are getting out of South Korean ETFs.”

The breakeven rate on five-year US Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) was last at 2.383% after closing at 2.351% on Tuesday. The 10-year TIPS breakeven rate was last at 2.292%, indicating the market sees inflation averaging about 2.3% a year for the next decade.

(Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Jonathan Oatis)