U.S. Stock Selloff Sends Investors Into Treasuries Ahead of Jobs Report

Before Friday’s U.S. October jobs report, a stock-market selloff shifted investor demand toward Treasuries as traders pared expectations for further Federal Reserve rate increases.

Investors moved toward U.S. government bonds this week after global stocks fell following the U.S. midterm elections. The 10-year Treasury yield dropped Thursday to its lowest level since early September, then stood at 4.82% Friday as the stock selloff intensified.

Options positions pointed to bets on further declines. One trade anticipated the 10-year yield falling to 4.7% by the following weekend, while another position expiring Nov. 20 centered on a drop to about 4.35%.

Gennadiy Goldberg, head of U.S. rates strategy at TD Securities, expected the October jobs report to be slightly soft. He described the U.S. economy as strong, with a labor market marked by low hiring and low layoffs, and said markets had already cut rate-hike expectations substantially in recent weeks.

The move toward Treasuries is a shift in risk appetite that crypto traders also monitor.