Treasuries Close Roughly Flat After Recovering From Early Slump

(RTTNews) - After recovering from an initial move to the downside, treasuries showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading session on Thursday.
Bond prices spent most of the day lingering near the unchanged line before closing roughly flat. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, edged down by less than a basis point to 4.313 percent after reaching a high of 4.362 percent.
The early weakness came amid renewed concerns about an escalation of the conflict in the Middle East following President Donald Trump's primetime address Wednesday night.
While Trump's speech largely echoed his recent comments and Truth Social posts, traders seemed to respond negatively to the tone of his remarks.
The president reiterated his claim that the war will be over "very shortly" but also said the U.S. is going to hit Iran "extremely hard over the next two to three weeks," bringing the country "back to the stone ages where they belong."
Trump also once again called on other countries to "build up some delayed courage" and take control of the vital Strait of Hormuz, claiming, "The hard part is done."
After moving sharply lower over the past two days amid optimism an end to the conflict, crude oil prices skyrocketed in reaction to Trump's speech, with U.S. crude oil futures spiking by more than 10 percent.
However, early selling pressure waned after a report from Iranian state news agency IRNA said Iran and Oman are drafting a protocol to "monitor transit" through the Strait of Hormuz.
Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran's deputy minister of legal and international affairs, said the requirements are meant to "facilitate and ensure safe passage and provide better services to ships that pass through this route," according to a translation of IRNA's report.
In U.S. economic news, the labor Department released a report showing first time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly edged lower in the week ended March 28th.
The report said initial jobless claims dipped to 202,000, a decrease of 9,000 from the previous week's revised level of 211,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to inch up to 212,000 from the 210,000 originally reported for the previous week.
With the unexpected decrease, jobless claims dropped to their lowest level since hitting 201,000 in the week ended January 10th.
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