the policysensitive 2year treasury yield fell further below 49 on thursday after data showed that weekly initial jobless claims jumped to a 10week high and as a broadbased flighttosafety trade gathered momentum in the afternoon data released on thursday showed that initial jobless benefit claims jumped to a 10week high of 211000 in early march prompting yields to pull back in morning trading economists polled by the wall street journal had expected new claims to total 195000 for the seven days that ended march 3the second leg of the move lower in yields on thursday came as a result of a flight to safety according to michael reinking a senior market strategist for the new york stock exchangethe broadbased rally in bonds that pushed yields lower came as investors continued to absorb this weeks hawkish guidance from federal reserve chairman jay powell and looked ahead to employment data due on friday a strong february nonfarm payroll report on friday and cpi inflation report due on march 14 would likely encourage the fed to hike its policy interestrate target by 50 basis points at its next meeting in two weeks analysts said see wall street sees smaller 225000 increase in us jobs in february a much larger gain might spur stiffer fed rate hike markets are pricing in a 72 probability that the fed will raise its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points to a range of 5 to 525 on march 22 according to the cme fedwatch tool the central bank is also mostly expected to take its fed funds rate target to between 55 to 575 or even higher by november according to 30day fed funds futures treasurys 18 billion auction of 30year bonds on thursday produced fair results according to bmo capital markets following a poorlyreceived 32 billion 10year bond sale the day before what analysts are saying the risks of a higher and faster hike trajectory have risen after powell clearly lowered the bar for a 50bp hike in march possibly in an attempt to dodge the mounting criticism that the fed has fallen behind the inflation curve again still the data will ultimately have the last say and there is plenty of time and evidence to tip the scales back to 25bp especially with the fed in datadependent mode said stephen innes managing partner at spi asset management the headwinds that were helping to slow growth last year  bottlenecks fading stimulus  are decreasing this year providing the conditions for an economic reacceleration such a rebound would often be welcomed however with inflation still running at almost 5 central bankers remain concerned that too much growth could foster in a 1970sstyle era of unanchored inflation expectations as a result look for the fed to remain diligent in its fight against inflation and one should position the terminal fedfunds rate to be as high as 575 innes said this content was created by marketwatch which is operated by dow jones  co marketwatch is published independently from dow jones newswires and the wall street journal