NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Bonds dipped Wednesday after a pair of reports indicated the labor market may be improving, as investors braced for the government's Friday report on the unemployment rate.
What prices are doing: The benchmark 10-year bond fell 16/32 to 96-12/32, boosting the yield to 2.61% from 2.55% late Tuesday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.
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| Click on chart to view other bond prices and yields. |
The 30-year bond fell 29/32 to 95-9/32 and its yield was 4.66%. The 2-year slipped 1/32 to 99-29/32 and yielded 1.04%.
What's driving prices: "The general thinking is that maybe the worst is over," said Michael Cheah, bond fund manager at AIG SunAmerica. "Fewer people are getting fired, and no one is going crazy over the unemployment rate over 10% now."
On Wednesday, payroll-services firm Automatic Data Processing (ADP, Fortune 500) said private-sector employers cut 84,000 jobs in December, the fewest since March 2008. It was the ninth straight month that job losses narrowed from the previous month.
In a separate report, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said that 45,094 job cuts were announced in December, 10% less than November's 50,349 cuts. It was the lowest total since December 2007, when 44,416 cuts were announced.
Upbeat data tend to send government debt prices lower, as investors turn to riskier, higher-yielding assets like equities.
What analysts are saying: Cheah said he didn't expect market participants to take new positions ahead of the national unemployment report slated for release Friday. The Labor Department's report is expected to show no jobs were gained or lost in December, an improvement from a 11,000 loss in November. The unemployment rate is expected to edge up to 10.1% from 10%.
Treasury prices will likely reverse and turn higher in the long term, Cheah said, as global governments scale back their operations to pump cash into their economies.
"As things improve, the global central banks are playing this huge game of Jenga -- removing one block of support at a time," Cheah said. "That will push investors back to safe havens, as no one knows if pulling out a block will make the whole thing fall down." 
| Overnight Avg Rate | Latest | Change | Last Week |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 yr fixed | 3.80% | 3.88% | |
| 15 yr fixed | 3.20% | 3.23% | |
| 5/1 ARM | 3.84% | 3.88% | |
| 30 yr refi | 3.82% | 3.93% | |
| 15 yr refi | 3.20% | 3.23% |
Today's featured rates:
| Index | Last | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dow | 32,627.97 | -234.33 | -0.71% |
| Nasdaq | 13,215.24 | 99.07 | 0.76% |
| S&P 500 | 3,913.10 | -2.36 | -0.06% |
| Treasuries | 1.73 | 0.00 | 0.12% |
| Company | Price | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ford Motor Co | 8.29 | 0.05 | 0.61% |
| Advanced Micro Devic... | 54.59 | 0.70 | 1.30% |
| Cisco Systems Inc | 47.49 | -2.44 | -4.89% |
| General Electric Co | 13.00 | -0.16 | -1.22% |
| Kraft Heinz Co | 27.84 | -2.20 | -7.32% |
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