The US Treasury set out to sell close to $180 billion of new government bonds in the last week of the first quarter, with notably large auctions of $66 billion of two-year notes on Monday and $67 billion of five-years on Tuesday, plus another $50 billion of supply besides that.
There were plenty of indirect bidders for the two-year, more than on any such issue since last June. Primary dealers weren’t left holding too much of it. And even though the Treasury had to pay a 0.5 basis point new-issue premium, that set a good tone for a busy week.
But then, almost every week is a busy week for the US Treasury, even with the economy performing well, talk of no landing rather than a soft or hard one, and tax receipts set to boost the already healthy balance of $800 billion in the Treasury General…
