Another report showed that weekly first-time claims for jobless benefits fell.

Bonds may also have been helped by yesterday's report on weekly initial claims for unemployment benefits.

The Labor Department reports on weekly claims for unemployment insurance.

American weekly jobless claims just hit 417,000, some 10,000 more than expected.

Today, the market will get a look at initial weekly jobless claims for the period ended Jan. 27.

A bigger than expected rise in the weekly jobless claims and some sell program trading kept the pressure on.

But he said weekly jobless claims, which have remained below 300,000 for 10 weeks, are a signal of strength.

In addition, weekly jobless claims dropped to their lowest level since March 2001, the government said.

For comparison, in 2000 - a year of good but not great employment growth - weekly claims averaged 305,000.

Tomorrow the Labor department will not be releasing its initial weekly claims for unemployment insurance.