The Treasury Department just auctioned off a fresh batch of $16 billion in 30-year bonds, and it didn’t go so well.
Uncle Sam had to pay a little bit more than expected in the auction, 4.38% vs. 4.35% expected. Primary dealers were forced to take down a lot more of the auction than usual, a sign of softish demand.
The 10-year note is suffering in sympathy, pushing its yield up to a whopping 3.24%, and please feel free to read that “whopping” sarcastically.
China failed to attract enough bids to sell all of the three-month bills it planned to sell in an auction Friday, as a liquidity squeeze hurt investor demand for new debt offerings.
We are not Greece. That is the message Ireland sent to investors Tuesday by successfully raising €1.5 billion in funds from the capital markets.
Gilts opened higher Tuesday, with a cautious tone ahead of an Irish bond auction later in the session supporting a bid for safe haven government bonds.
Markets should get a boost from Ireland’s relatively successful Treasury bill sale on Thursday – the latest sign that despite its banking problems Ireland isn’t yet facing a funding problem.
Despite growing fears that Ireland might turn into the next Greece as the euro-zone crisis drags on, Ireland has once again proved the strength of its financial position.