Treasury bond prices finished a light pre-holiday session mostly higher Thursday.
The price of the Treasury's main 30-year bond rose 3-32 point, or 94 cents per $1,000 in face value, while its yield held at 6.21 percent.On Wednesday, bond prices raced upward after demand was strong at the Treasury's auction of new 5-year notes.
The market closed at 2 p.m. Eastern time Thursday, and traders were reluctant to stake out new positions despite strong economic data released by the government.
The Commerce Department reported orders to U.S. factories for durable goods jumped 2 percent, while personal income rose 0.6 percent and consumer spending rose 0.4 percent in November.
Such signs generally worry the bond market because a stronger economy can aggravate inflation, which weakens the value of long-term investments.
"Most of them were somewhat better than expected but they really haven't had a big impact," said Jim Kenney, head trader at Prudential Securities Inc.
Also, analysts said the market had virtually shut down for 1993, with traders unlikely to react to any news. Traders are focusing on whether the economy can maintain its recent strength into 1994, rather than on recent numbers.
"Those figures that we're getting for November just don' have the same bite they might have had a month or so ago," said Kevin Flanagan, a money market economist at Dean Witter, Discover & Co.
The Lehman Brothers Daily Treasury Bond Index, reflecting price movements on bonds with maturities of a year or longer, closed at 1,309.68, up 1.31.
Short-term Treasuries were unchanged to up 1-32 point, while intermediate maturities rose 3-32 point to 5-32 point, the financial information service Telerate Inc. reported.
Yields on three-month Treasury bills were unchanged at 3.11 percent as the discount held at 3.05 percent. Six-month yields were unchanged at 3.28 percent as the discount held at 3.19 percent. One-year yields were unchanged at 3.56 percent as the discount held at 3.43 percent.
Yields are the interest bonds pay by maturity, while the discount is the interest at which they are sold.
The federal funds rate, the interest on overnight loans between banks, was 3 1-16 percent, down from 33/8 percent late Wednesday.
In the tax-exempt market, the Bond Buyer index of 40 actively traded municipal bonds closed at 104 3-32, up 5-32 from Wednesday. The average yield to maturity was 5.53 percent, down from 5.54 percent.