Bond prices fall in sluggish trading after rally.

Government bond prices declined on Friday, as the market took a breather after rallying much of last week.

Market analysts called the drop a minor correction.

"Given the thinness of trading, the credit market was vulnerable to being in an overbought position," John Lonski, senior economist al Moody's Investors Service, said.

At 4 p.m. Friday, the price of the Treasury's 30-year bond was down 3/8, raising the yield to 6.13% from 6.09% on Thursday. The yield, though, is down from 6.21% at the start of the week.

Other Treasury coupon issues also moved lower. The 10-year note lost more than 1/2, increasing the yield to 5.50% from 5.41%. Five-year notes lost 1/4, to yield 4.86%, up from 4.77%. And two-year notes fell 1/8, raising the yield to 3.91% from 3.82%.

The bond-equivalent yield on the three-month Treasury bill rose to 3.10% from 3.05%.

Several reports on the economy are due out this week. The most important will come Friday, with the release of the August employment report. Economists are expecting moderate growth between 120,000 and 150,000 nonfarm jobs.

"If the jobs report provides additional evidence of mediocre economic expansion, the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond could easily move below 6.10%," Mr. Lonski said.

Other major reports due out this week include: new-home sales, scheduled for release today; and second-quarter gross domestic product and consumer confidence, scheduled for Tuesday.

The rise in bond yields hurt the stock market. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 7.55 points to 3,640.,63. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 0.5 to 460.54. But the Nasdaq composite index gained 2.69 to 734.08.

The dollar fell to 103.70 yen from 104.35 and to 1.6635 marks from 1.6675.

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