02:29 PM EST, 01/09/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Most US government bond yields fell on Thursday, but were off their shortened-session lows, ahead of nonfarm payrolls on Friday.

Major US exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq 100, fully closed equity and options markets to observe a National Day of Mourning in honor of former US President Jimmy Carter, according to an IG market update. The bond market closed at 2 pm ET. Forex trading remains unaffected, and US metals and energy commodities will follow regular trading schedules.

The US 10-year Treasury yield was little changed at 4.69%, after dropping as much as 3.6 basis points earlier in the session. Earlier this week, the 10-year yield hit its highest intraday since April. The two-year yield fell 2.3 basis points to 4.27%.

Treasury yields softened after Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker and Boston Fed President Susan Collins reiterated that the central bank remains on track to cut interest rates further up ahead. The December nonfarm payrolls due for release Friday will likely show a gain of 164,000, according to a poll compiled by Bloomberg, lagging the 227,000 jump reported in November.

On Wednesday, the December meeting minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee indicated concern over how President-elect Donald Trump's proposed policies could impact inflation and the resulting need to show caution while easing policy, according to a D. A. Davidson note.

"Overall, we see enough in the minutes (and other Fed speak) to retain our outlook for two 25bp rate cuts, in March and June," a note from Morgan Stanley said. "Inflation is likely to trend lower in the first half of the year, keeping gradual cuts in place, before restrictive trade policies halt disinflation--and further Fed cuts--in the second half of the year."

In economic news, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve's December manufacturing index was revised up to minus 10.9 from minus 16.4 and followed a revised minus 4.4 in November, annual data released Thursday showed. The January Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index is due Jan. 16.

Meanwhile, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said companies planned to cut 38,792 jobs in December, down from 57,727 in November but up from 34,817 a year ago.

In company news, the Dutch government said it is discussing with Nvidia ( NVDA ) and Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) setting up an artificial intelligence facility in the Netherlands.

Separately, Super Micro Computer ( SMCI ) began volume shipments of new high-performance servers equipped with Intel's ( INTC ) Xeon 6900 series processors.

This comes as the outgoing President Joe Biden's administration plans one more round of restrictions on the export of artificial intelligence chips, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures advanced 0.9% to $73.98 a barrel.

Gold futures rose 0.7% to $2,692 an ounce, and silver futures increased 1.3% to $31.11 per ounce.