* ADP shows private employers added 297,000 jobs in Dec
* Fed buys absolute minimum amount in daily bond purchases
* ISM data shows services activity, prices paid rise (Rewrites first paragraph, updates comments, adds Fed buying, ISM report, updates prices)
NEW YORK, Jan 5 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasuries' prices fell on Wednesday after a measure of private employment in December showed an unexpected jump, while the Federal Reserve bought the bare minimum amount of government bonds for the day.
Treasury prices sold off after ADP Employer Services said U.S. private employers added 297,000 jobs, three times greater than forecast. For details, see [ID:nEAP102100]
Prices took another leg down after the Fed bought $1.5 billion in bonds ranging from 17 to 29 years in maturity. The central bank had said it would buy between $1.5 billion and $2.5 billion in Treasuries on Wednesday. [ID:nN20EDTABL]
"The lackluster buyback had a negative effect on the marketplace," said Tom di Galoma, head of fixed income rates trading at Guggenheim Securities in New York.
The Fed purchases were part of a $600 billion program by the central bank to buy Treasuries and stimulate the economy. Some analysts think the Fed could curtail the program if the economy improves enough before the purchases are completed.
The ADP jobs report offered a brighter picture of the U.S. labor market shortly before Friday's Labor Department survey of employers on non-farm payroll jobs in December.
"You cannot ignore the strength of this report. As a consequence of this report, we are taking our payrolls estimate higher for sure," said Tom Porcelli, U.S. economist at RBC Capital Markets in New York.
The payrolls number is one of the most closely watched economic indicators, and the U.S. unemployment rate heavily influences the Fed's monetary policy.
The ADP private jobs data is viewed by market participants as a tool to help predict the broader payrolls number.
ADP said the December increase was the largest single gain since it began releasing the data in 2000.
"There were people who were long the market for today's buyback and because of the price action yesterday. When the ADP number came out, they just started selling," said John Spinello, Treasury bond strategist at Jefferies & Co. in New York.
"Foreigners didn't buy in this downtick, which is worrisome. They were buying last night and the night before."
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