Friday, February 6, 2009

Treasuries Drop Over Demand Concerns

From Bloomberg:

Treasuries fell for a third straight week after the government’s announcement of a record $67 billion in note and bond sales overshadowed the biggest monthly decline in payrolls since 1974. Yields on the benchmark 10-year note touched the highest in more than two months as the government set the auctions for next week and concern mounted that debt sales will damp demand.
Here is the full story.

One of the concerns that I have about this is that possibility that the immense supply of treasury debt may cannibalize the corporate and muni bond debt markets, sopping up money that would have gone to those bonds instead. If this happens, interest rates will rise for companies, states, and local governments, making matters even worse for them.