FINANCIAL MARKETS : CREDIT : Economic Reports Depress Bond Prices

Bond prices slipped as the market reacted to the government figures that showed the economy was not slowing as much as some had assumed.

The Treasury’s benchmark 30-year bond, which has lost about 1 1/2 points over the past three sessions, dropped 19/32 point, or about $5.94 for every $1,000 face amount.

Its yield, which rises when prices fall, edged up to 8.51% from 8.46% late Thursday.

Luke Haney, a bond trader with the Philadelphia brokerage Butcher & Singer Inc., said the economic news “kind of puts your investors on the sidelines wondering exactly what is going on.”

“We’ve just been in a tremendous down flow and there don’t seem to be any buyers out there,” he added.

The federal funds rate, the interest rate banks charge each other on overnight loans, was quoted at 8.813%, up from 8.188% late Thursday.