Solid 30Y Auction Tails As Yield Slide Accelerates

While not nearly as strong as yesterday’s stellar 10Y auction, today’s just concluded sale of $18bn in 30Y paper (in the form of a 29Y-10M reopening) was no slouch.

The final coupon auction of the week priced at a high yield of 3.910%, virtually unchanged compared to last month’s 3.908%, and approaching the highest stop of the current cycle reached in November when the 30Y priced at 4.080%.

But if last month the auction stopped through the When Issued by just over 1 basis point, today’s auction tailed the 3.890% When Issued by 2 basis point, the biggest tail since February.

The bid to cover of 2.432 was below last month’s 2.522 but higher than the six-auction average of 2.392.

The internals were weaker, with Indirects taking down 69.0% the lowest since February and below the six-auction average of 70.8%. And with Directs awarded 20.1% or the highest since December, Dealers were left holding on to 10.9%, right on top of the recent auction average of 10.8%.

Overall, while the auction did tail, that can be attributed to the lack of concession due to the sharp slide in yields in recent days as the yield curve has steepened sharply in the past week; otherwise, metrics were solid and demand for paper is clearly there.