While pricing right on the When Issued screws, or 0.540%, tied for the lowest high yield since October 2014, today's $26 billion auction of 2 Year paper was nothing to write home about. From a low Bid to Cover, which at 3.30 was down from March's 3.457%, and the lowest of 2015, to a slide in the Indirect bid to only 38.1%, also the lowest for 2015, to the highest Dealer take down of 2015, with commercial banks left with 47.8% of the short-end issue, there was not much demand for the paper which pays a 0.50% cash coupon and which matures on April 30, 2017.
Still, the lack of a tail is what the algos were looking at, and they got it. As a result the bid following the auction across the curve which has pushed the 3Y yield to the LOD, quickly erased any lingering doubts one may have had about the auction's strength.
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And yet one thing is certain: when the maturity date rolls by, the Fed will still be scrambling to explain why, over a decade later, it still hasn't done even one rate hike (spoiler alert: snow in the winter).
