MW: Treasurys under pressure before 10-year note auction
By Deborah Levine, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Treasury prices declined early Wednesday, pushing yields up for the first day in three, before the government sells $21 billion in 10-year notes, the second of three auctions this week.
Traders were concerned they won't see the type of demand from investors that the 3-year note sale (UST3YR 1.17, -0.06, -4.82%) received Tuesday.
"Without any pressing economic data today the focus will be about supply of 10's and 30's," Thomas di Galoma, head of fixed income rates trading at Guggenheim Partners, wrote in an email.
Ten-year note yields (UST10Y 3.38, -0.05, -1.31%) rose 2 basis points to 3.40%. A basis point is 0.01% and yields move in the opposite direction as prices.
Yields on 2-year notes (UST2YR 0.71, -0.04, -5.67%) slipped 1 basis point to 0.74%.
The Treasury Department will close the auction at 1 p.m. Eastern time.
The sale is a reopening, meaning the debt to be sold will carry the same coupon and maturity as the original issue sold last month. The amount is $1 billion bigger than the last reopening of 10-year notes.
At the last four reopenings of 10-year debt, bidders offered an average of 2.92 times the amount of debt being sold, according to RBS Securities. Indirect bidders, a group of investors that includes foreign central banks, purchased an average of 45.2% of the sales.
The government will also sell $13 billion in 30-year bonds (UST30Y 4.37, -0.02, -0.36%) on Thursday, which is also a reopening.