Five-Year Note Auction Attracts Below Average Demand

(RTTNews) - Following yesterday's two-year note auction, the Treasury Department sold $35 billion worth of five-year notes on Wednesday, attracting below average demand.

The five-year note auction drew a high yield of 1.387 percent and a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.35.

The Treasury sold $35 billion worth of five-year notes last month, drawing a high yield of 1.480 percent and a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.54.

The bid-to-cover ratio is a measure of demand that indicates the amount of bids for each dollar worth of securities being sold.

The ten previous five-year note auctions had an average bid-to-cover ratio of 2.63.

Peter Boockvar, managing director at the Lindsey Group, said, "The five-year auction was poor as the yield was above the when issued and the bid to cover of 2.54 was below the previous 12-month average of 2.71. Also, direct and indirect bidders took the smallest amount of a five-year auction since October."

Finishing off this week's series of long-term securities auctions, the Treasury is due to sell $29 billion worth of seven-year notes on Thursday.