Monday, July 27, 2009

Treasury Auction of 13-Week Bill

The U.S. Treasury Department auctions 13-week bill every single week to fund the government operations (I hope). It auctioned this week's batch today, but one number caught my attention: Indirect Bidders.

This week, 13-week bill attracted only $4.62 billion of Indirect Bidders' money (which represents foreign buyers of Treasuries), or only 14.4% of total sales of $32 billion.

In June and July, the Indirect Bidder percentages of 13-week bill were:

  • July 20: 44.3%
  • July 13: 51.5%
  • July 6: 32%
  • June 29: 53%
  • June 22: 29%
  • June 15: 35.8%
  • June 8: 34.9%
  • June 1: 51.2%

If foreigners including foreign central banks stop rolling over the U.S. short-term debt, it would be some problem here... One week doesn't make a trend, but it is worth keeping an eye on it.

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