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· U.S. government debt yields rose Wednesday as traders monitored the latest developments in U.S.-China trade talks.



The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note jumped sharply to about 2.513 percent, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond climbed to 2.923 percent. Bond yields move inversely to prices.



· U.S. and Chinese officials are reportedly getting closer to a trade deal, having resolved most of the outstanding issues in their protracted trade spat. Both countries slapped tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of each other's goods last year.



Beijing wants Washington to remove existing U.S. duties on Chinese imports, while the Trump administration wants China to agree to an enforcement mechanism to ensure the country abides by the deal, according to the Financial Times.



Executive Vice President for International Affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Myron Brilliant told reporters that 90 percent of the deal is done, but the final 10 percent remains the trickiest part of the negotiations and would require compromise, according to the FT.



· U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are scheduled to meet with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He later on Wednesday to resume negotiations.



· Private payrolls data released Wednesday showed job growth slumped to an 18-month low in March, another sign that an extended hiring streak may be starting to cool.

· "The job market is weakening, with employment gains slowing significantly across most industries and company sizes," Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said in a statement. "Businesses are hiring cautiously as the economy is struggling with fading fiscal stimulus, the trade uncertainty, and the lagged impact of Fed tightening. If employment growth weakens much further, unemployment will begin to rise."

· Payrolls as reported by ADP and Moody's Analytics increased by just 129,000 for the month, well below the 173,000 that economists surveyed by Dow Jones had forecast. March was the worst month since September 2017, which saw an increase of just 111,000.



· Investors will receive the latest update on the employment situation from the Labor Department on Friday.



· Growth in services fell more than expected in March and advanced at its slowest pace in more than 12 months, the Institute for Supply Management reported. The ISM non-manufacturing index dipped to 56.1 last month, its softest read since August 2017.

· The euro gained against the greenback on Wednesday as hopes of a trade deal between the U.S. and China bolstered risk appetite globally, while the Australian dollar outperformed on strong local and Chinese economic data.

Better than expected service sector data in Europe further helped the single currency as German 10-year Bund yields also headed back above zero. The services Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) rose to 53.3 from 52.8, ahead of the flash estimate of 52.7. The PMIs today were not robust but certainly better than expected, Franulovich said.



The euro was last up 0.34% against the U.S. dollar at $1.124. The single currency on Tuesday fell to its lowest levels in more than three weeks and neared $1.1174, which if broken would send the currency to its weakest levels since June 2017.


The dollar also weakened after data showed that U.S. services sector activity slowed to a more than 1-1/2-year low in March amid a sharp drop in new orders, underscoring slowing economic growth that supports the Federal Reserve's decision to halt further interest rates increases this year.



The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 97.091 after seeing levels above 97.2 yesterday.



The Japanese yen traded at 111.45 against the dollar as it remained largely range-bound. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7120 after rebounding from lows below $0.708 yesterday.



· The lower house of the British parliament on Wednesday approved legislation which would force Prime Minister Theresa May to seek a Brexit delay to prevent a potentially disorderly departure on April 12 without a deal.

May said on Tuesday she would seek another short extension to Brexit beyond April 12, in order to try and work with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to get her thrice-rejected Brexit deal approved by parliament.



To avoid an abrupt no-deal Brexit on April 12, May must present a summit of EU leaders next Wednesday with a plausible strategy to win approval in parliament for the Withdrawal Agreement that she negotiated with Brussels.



Britain should be allowed to delay its official Brexit departure date again so it can think carefully about its future, the EU’s competition chief told CNBC.



“I don’t see a risk in prolonging the departure (from the European Union),” Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner for Competition said Tuesday in an exclusive interview in Brussels.



· Oil prices dipped on Wednesday after rallying for three straight days, as rising U.S. crude stockpiles offset support from OPEC supply cuts and U.S. sanctions on Iran and Venezuela.

U.S. commercial crude inventories surged by 7.2 million barrels in the week through March 29, the Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday. Analysts in a Reuters poll expected stockpiles to fall by 425,000 barrels.



Despite the unexpected increase, oil prices did not lose much ground after the report.



U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude settled 12 cents lower at $62.46 on Wednesday, having earlier hit $62.99, the highest level since Nov. 7.



Brent futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, fell 6 cents to $69.31. They earlier reached $69.96 — the highest since Nov. 12, when they last traded above $70.



Reference: CNBC, Reuters