The last time the US held a 10 year auction was earlier than its usual time on December 12, just before the Fed announced QE4EVA. The result from that particular auction were a total jumble, where Primary Dealers took down a tiny 33.1%, and where Directs were stuffed with a near record 42.7%. That and a big, 1.7 bps tail. In this light today's 10 Year was a little more casual, with the Treasury just issuing another $21 billion in 10 year bonds [4], this time not premonetized unlike tomorrow's 30 year auction, although the internals were just as ugly. The When Issued was 1.855%, with the final High Yield of 1.863% tailing (84% allotted at high). The Bid to Cover was 2.83, the smallest for a reopening auction since December 2009, and well below the average for 2012 of 3.03. Indirects took down just 28.5%, the second lowest in years, and better only compared to December's 24.2%, while Directs ended up holding only 14.8% of the final allocation, a big drop from December's 42.7%, which increasingly appears to have been a year end window dressing by various credit funds to show "safe securities" on their books. Overall, an ugly 10 Year auction following another ugly 10 Year auction, even if the past week has seen the yield on the paper drop substantially from 1.97% a week ago to 1.86% today. Was that it for the great "bonds to stocks" rotation?
[5]
In other news, the G-fund is plundered by another $21 billion today to preserve headroom under the debt ceiling, which has now been breached for 10 days running.