Moments ago the US Treasury sold another $35 billion [3]in 2 Year paper in what can only be classified as one of the weakest 2 short-end auction in the recent past. While the high yield rose notably from 0.233% to 0.283%, it is still at negligible ZIRPy levels associated with Bernanke's extended promise to keep the short-end as virtually equivalent to cash currency. With increasing rumblings that the Fed may be tapering, tightening, and otherwise pushing the short-end higher over the next two years, there was little such fear manifesting in the auction's yield which telegraphs nothing but smooth sailing for the next two years in terms of where Bernanke sees yield: perhaps a better indicator will be demand for the 3 Year auction next week which is seen on the cusip of the ZIRP time barrier.
That said, the internals were ugly, with the Bid to Cover sliding from 3.63x to 3.04x, the lowest since the 3.03x seen in February 2011. But it was the general abdication by Direct bidders, who took down a tiny 12.6% of the auction compared to a TTM average of 21.58%, and the lowest since July 2012. Same with Indirects who were left with just 21.93% of the allocation, meaning Dealers had to end with 65.47% of the auction. This was the highest Dealer take down since April 2009. Oh well: at least they will have plenty of "money good" collateral against which to rehypothecate and use the cash proceeds to buy stocks and other risk assets, at least until such time as the Fed proceeds to monetize this paper as well.
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