From the category archives:
Investors are increasingly reluctant to step up and buy long-term Treasuries. The proof is in the results from yesterday’s sale of $25 billion in 10-year notes and today’s sale of $16 billion in 30-year bonds.
Today, the bonds were sold at a yield of 4.72%, versus pre-auction talk of 4.687%. The bid-to-cover ratio was just 2.36, compared [...]
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The December jobs report was disappointing, with the economy shedding 85,000 jobs against expectations for an unchanged reading. November’s reading was revised to +4,000 from -11,000. But the unemployment rate held at 10%, which has to be disappointing, and the separate household survey showed a nasty loss of 589,000 jobs.
Some slight positives: Average hourly earnings [...]
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The Federal Open Market Committee just concluded its policy meeting. As expected, interest rates were left unchanged in a range of 0% to 0.25%. The Fed reiterated that several special support programs for commercial paper, primary dealers, and other constituencies will end on February 1, 2010. The Fed will continue to buy mortgage backed securities [...]
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Readers, you should be aware that the 30-year Treasury Bond auction today stunk up the joint. $13 billion in 30s were auctioned off at yield of 4.52%, 4 basis points worse than pre-auction talk.
Despite the recent rise in yields, demand was relatively punk, too — with indirect bidding falling to 40.2% from 44% in the prior month’s auction. [...]
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Holy cow! That didn’t last long. Look at this intraday chart of the Dollar Index. If that’s all the bang Bernanke can get for his … er … buck, the dollar is sicker than even I thought (and that’s saying something)!
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The text from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech in New York was just released. For a change, he actually mentioned the dollar and suggested that its movements could factor into policy decisions. That has led to a bounce in the Dollar Index from its daily low. The operative text is below:
“The foreign exchange value of [...]
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There’s a lot of chatter on the dollar front today. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told a group of Japanese reporters that he “believe[s] deeply that it’s very important for the U.S. and the economic health of the U.S. that we maintain a strong dollar.”
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum is also up in arms about the [...]
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The Federal Open Market Committee just released its latest interest rate decision and statement. Rates were left unchanged, as expected, at a range of 0% to 0.25%. The Fed also held onto its language pledging to keep rates low for an “extended period.” One minor surprise: The Fed said it would reduce the size of [...]
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That was interesting. CNBC just carried a report from Steve Liesman , the gist of which was (in my humble opinion) “Go ahead … sell the dollar!” Specifically, Liesman said that unnamed policy officials told him the U.S. government view is that the dollar decline is no big deal. The decline is orderly, it just [...]
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Our “What me, Worry?” Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke may not care about the falling dollar. But foreign central banks are getting seriously peeved about the strength in their currencies against the ever-depreciating dollar …
* The Bank of Canada released a statement today saying that “heightened volatility and persistent strength in the Canadian dollar are working [...]
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