Treasuries moved to the upside during trading on Thursday, extending the rally seen over the two previous sessions.
Bond prices gave back ground after a morning surge but remained firmly in positive territory. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell by 5.2 basis points to 3.351 percent.
With the continued decrease on the day, the ten-year yield slid to its lowest closing level in almost a month.
Treasuries continued to benefit from their appeal as a safe haven amid extended weakness on Wall Street, with stocks seeing further downside amid concerns about turmoil among regional banks.
The continued strength among treasuries also came amid continued optimism about the Federal Reserve pausing its interest rate hikes, although comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell clouded the outlook.
Powell said the central bank would take a "data-dependent approach" to future monetary policy decisions and stressed a decision on a pause was not made at the meeting.
The next monetary policy meeting is scheduled for June 13-14, with CME Group's FedWatch Tool currently indicating a 90.8 percent chance the Fed will leave rates unchanged.
In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department released a showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rose by slightly more than expected in the week ended April 29th.
The report said initial jobless claims climbed to 242,000, an increase of 13,000 from the previous week's revised level of 229,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 240,000 from the 230,000 originally reported for the previous week.
A separate report released by the Commerce Department said the U.S. trade deficit shrank to $64.2 billion in March from a revised $70.6 billion in February.
The Labor Department also released another report showing U.S. labor productivity tumbled by much more than expected in the first quarter of 2023, while unit labor costs spiked more than expected.
The monthly jobs report is likely to be in the spotlight on Friday, with economists expecting employment to increase by 179,000 jobs in April after jumping by 236,000 jobs in March.
With the Federal Reserve signaling future monetary policy decisions will be "data-dependent," the jobs report could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates.
