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http://today.reuters.com/PrinterFriendlyPopup.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=uri:2006-01-05T144225Z_01_N05337434_RTRIDST_0_MARKETS-BONDS.XMLNEW YORK, Jan 5 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury debt prices briefly extended early losses on Thursday on a big drop in weekly first-time jobless claims that brought the number of unemployed workers seeking benefits to the lowest level in five years.
Claims fell to 291,000 in the week ended Dec. 31 -- considerably below the 320,000 economists had expected and the upwardly revised 326,000 claims in the prior week.
While some analysts said the data suggested a fairly robust job market, others dismissed the significance of a single week of data, adding that the holidays sometimes distort economic data.
As a result, the selling pressure faded fairly quickly, as the bond market focused attention on other economic reports being released on Thursday at 10 a.m. (1500 GMT), including data on the services sector in December and on pending real estate sales in November.
"I think that traders are looking at real estate sales," said Carol Hurley, a bond trader at Lind-Waldock in Chicago. That's the data that can affect the economy, so that's why it's important," Hurley said.
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