U.S. Treasuries slip as latest auction flops
Wed Apr 13, 2005 01:11 PM ET
NEW YORK, April 13 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury debt prices eased on Wednesday after an auction of $15 billion in new five-year notes drew only scant demand.
The notes were sold at a high yield of 4.046 percent and drew bids for 1.86 times the amount on offer, far below the 2.59 average garnered for the previous 10 auctions of the same maturity.
Indirect bidders, a class that includes foreign central banks, picked up $4.20 billion, or a meager 28 percent of the issue, also well below the 42 percent level seen at the last sale. Primary dealers themselves were saddled with $10.63 billion of the issue.
The current five-year note (US5YT=RR: Quote, Profile, Research) was down 2/32 in price, leaving yields at 4.05 percent. The benchmark 10-year note (US10YT=RR: Quote, Profile, Research) was 5/32 lower in price to yield 4.38 percent.
Cushioning the blow were weak retail sales data released earlier, which had brought benchmark yields to a fresh one-month low of 4.33 percent.