i98mark 17/1/06
L'articolo in versione integrale. La data di pubblicazione ed ultimo aggiornamento è quella dello scorso 14 gennaio...
Treasuries Rise for Second Week After Inflation, Sales Reports
Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Treasuries rose for a second straight week after measures of inflation and retail sales increased less than forecast.
Evidence of tame inflation and sluggish consumer spending bolstered speculation the Federal Reserve is almost done increasing rates. Gains were muted as the government began the first of seven debt auctions over the next month forecast to total about $100 billion.
``The Treasury supply had some short-term effect, but the numbers indicate consumers are quieting down a little bit,'' said Barr Segal, a managing director at Los Angeles-based TCW Group Inc. who helps oversee $54 billion in fixed income assets. ``That's causing people to look past supply.''
The yield on the benchmark 10-year note fell 2 basis points, or 0.02 percentage point, to 4.36 percent, according to bond broker Cantor Fitzgerald LP. The yield has fallen in four of the past five weeks. The price of the 4 1/2 percent note due in November 2015 rose about 1/8, or $1.25 per $1,000 face amount, to 101 5/32.
Treasuries also received a boost at the end of the week amid U.S. and European opposition to Iran's Jan. 10 decision to resume nuclear research. President George W. Bush today said a nuclear- armed Iran posed a ``grave threat'' to the world.
Markets in the U.S. will be closed Jan. 16 in observance of Martin Luther King Day.
Inflation, Sales
The government yesterday said its producer price index, excluding food and energy, increased by 0.1 percent in December, half the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists. A day earlier, the government said prices of goods imported into the U.S. fell for a second month in December, the first back-to- back decline since 2004. Tame inflation preserves more of the value of a bond's fixed payments.
Also yesterday, a government report showed retail sales excluding autos rose 0.2 percent in December, half the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey, and November's decline was revised to 0.4 percent from 0.3 percent.
The reports ``solidified in some people's minds that things are not growing substantially and won't be inflationary,'' said James Sarni, senior managing partner at Payden & Rygel in Los Angeles, which manages $54 billion, mainly bonds.
Fed Moves
Fed policy makers have raised rates 13 times since June 2004, bringing their target for the overnight lending rate between banks to 4.25 percent, a four-year high, on Dec. 13.
``It wouldn't surprise me if we get to 4 3/4 percent, but it would surprise me to see the funds rate go higher than that,'' said Sarni.
Chicago Fed President Michael Moskow this week said in a speech that ``some further policy action'' is needed.
Interest-rate futures suggest traders expect the Fed will raise rates to 4.5 percent at its Jan. 31 meeting. The odds of an increase to 4.75 percent on March 28 are 56 percent, down from 64 percent before yesterday's the reports.
``The market is concluding the economy really is slowing down,'' said Ray Remy, head of fixed income at Daiwa Securities USA Inc. in New York. ``The Fed has told us they're going to be data-dependent. If the data is showing economic weakness, it doesn't make sense for them to be raising rates.''
Remy expects the central bank to boost the federal funds target at least twice more, to 4.75 percent, an outlook he said ``can't really justify'' current Treasury yields. The minutes of the Fed's Dec. 13 meeting, released Jan. 3, said the number of additional rate increases ``probably would not be large.''
Week Ahead, Supply
Next week, the Labor Department may say consumer prices, excluding food and energy, rose 0.2 percent last month, the same as in December, according to the median forecast of 56 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
Gains the past two days created profits for investors who bought Treasuries in this week's auctions of five-year notes and 10-year inflation-protected securities, the first of seven Treasury auctions through Feb. 9 forecast to total about $100 billion.
The Treasury sold $13 billion of five-year notes at a yield of 4.370 percent on Jan. 11. The notes yielded 4.31 percent today. A $9 billion auction of 10-year Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, or TIPs, yesterday, drew a yield of 2.025 percent. The notes traded at a yield of 1.98 percent today.
In the next four weeks, the government will sell two-, three- and 10-year notes, as well as 20-year TIPS, raising about $100 billion. It also will sell a 30-year bond for the first time in more than four years in February.
``The market has digested a huge amount of supply, be it Treasury or corporate, and done quite well, so things are looking good for the Treasury market,'' Daiwa's Remy said.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Daniel Kruger in New York at
[email protected]
Last Updated: January 14, 2006 08:25 EST