On the surface today's last of the week sale of $16 billion [4]in 30 Year paper was not very different from last month's: at a high yield of 3.652%, it was virtually unchanged from July's 3.66% pricing yield. However, when one looks at the When Issued which was trading notably inside at 3.645%, it becomes clear that this was the first 30Y auction to tail in a while. The real dirt, however, is revealed when looking at the Bid To Cover. Confirming the trend we discussed during yesterday's 10 Year auction of plunging BTCs, [5] today was no difference, and there was just 2.11 dollars in bids for every dollar offered. This was well below the 2.26 BTC from July, far below the 2.56 TTM average, and would have been the lowest going back all the way to February 2009 except for the 2.05 BTC seen during the August 11, 2011 30 Year auction when as a result of the debt ceiling fiasco and the S&P downgrade of the US, there was sheer chaos when it came to bonds which ironically saw a paradoxical collapse in yields even as end demand also plunged.
[6]
Overall this was a very weak auction, but that's precisely what the Fed wants: after all, soon the US may will fund itself by selling equity directly into the biggest Fed bubble ever created, and no longer bother with something as trivial as debt.