90 minutes after a mediocre 2Y auction hit the tape, the Treasury sold $70BN in 5Y paper in the day's second auction to start the Fed-abbreviated week, which also sees a 7Y sale tomorrow before the FOMC on Wednesday.
The auction stopped at a high yield of 4.
330% which was down from 4.478% in December, and also stopped through the When Issued 4.336% by 0.6bps - this was the third consecutive through auction in a row and followed 4 consecutive tails as sentiment has clearly improved toward the belly of the curve.The Bid to Cover was unchanged, at 2.40, exactly where it was last month, exactly where the six-auction average is, and where it has been within +/- 5bps since June!
The internals were slightly weaker with Indirects awarded 62.80%, down from 67.3% and the lowest since Jan 2024 (this could be some odd seasonal quirk). And with Directs awarded 26.1%, the most since Dec 2012, Dealers were left with just 11.1%, the lowest since May 2023.
Overall, a solid, and certainly stronger auction, than the 2Y this morning and not surprisingly we have seen yields drip by about 1-2 bps since the results, but it is safe to say that other much more important things are behind the move in rates today than today's auctions.