Treasuries ended the day little changed Thursday as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s testimony to the House Budget Committee had little impact on the market.  Bernanke suggested that although things appear to be getting better there is a still a great deal of uncertainty.  Bernanke said the central bank will seek to keep prices rising at a 2% rate and rejected suggestions that it would sacrifice its inflation goal to boost employment.  Yields on 10-year notes were little changed at 1.82% while the yield on the 30-year bond rose one basis point to 3.00%.   

The productivity of labor in the U.S. rose in the fourth quarter at a slower pace than in the previous quarter.  Growth in productivity eased to an expected 0.7% after a 1.9% increase in the third quarter that was revised down from the 3.1% originally reported last month, figures from the Labor Department showed.  Expenses per employee climbed at a 1.2% rate after dropping 2.1% in the third quarter, the report said.  As a result, unit labor costs rose 1.1% for the year, following two consecutive years of decline.

Another report from the Labor Department yesterday showed that initial claims for unemployment insurance declined by 12,000 to 367,000 in the week ended January 28.  Claims averaged 376,000 (-12.76% year-over-year) during the last four weeks, down from 430,000 during January, 2010 and were the lowest since June, 2008.  Continuing claims for unemployment insurance fell sharply to 3.437 million during the week of January 21, also the lowest level since 2008.

The outplacement firm of Challenger, Grey & Christmas reported yesterday that employers planned to eliminate 53,486 positions, down from a January average of 101,084 covering 1993 to 2011.  The reading was up 39% from the same month in 2011, the lowest for any January in almost two decades of data.  Dismissals are typically highest in January as employers focus on cost cutting at the beginning of the year.