TREASURIES-1-month Treasury yields fall to Oct. lows as debt ceiling worries grow

Kitco Media
By Reuters
Published:
Updated:
Reuters
(Recasts story, updates throughout) By David Randall NEW YORK, April 24 (Reuters) - One-month Treasury yields fell to their lowest levels since October on Monday as investors appeared to grow increasingly concerned about a potential standoff over the U.S. debt ceiling. The yield of the 1-month Treasury, which started the month near 4.7%, fell to 3.30%. Three-month Treasuries, meanwhile, eased to 5.08%, roughly in line with where they were trading in mid-April.


"People are focusing increasingly week-to-week on the summer and the debt ceiling deadline, and that is increasingly impacting what could be some idiosyncratic moves in the Treasury market," said Fran Rodilosso, head of fixed income ETF portfolio management at VanEck. "There's a growing sense that there's not a lot of common ground this time." U.S. tax collections are currently trending roughly 30% below last year’s level, raising the possibility that the United States will reach its borrowing limit as soon as the first half of June rather than later in the summer, according to Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research. The House of Representatives is expected to vote on a Republican-led debt and spending bill this week.


Market concerns over a debt default pushed the price of insuring Treasury debt through credit-default swaps to their highest levels in over a decade last week.


The yield on 10-year Treasury notes was down 5.2 basis points to 3.520%, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was down 4.7 basis points to 3.731%.


The Chicago Fed National Activity Index slipped 0.19 in March, the same decline it posted in February, and slightly above market expectations for a 0.20 decline. The April reading of the Dallas Fed Manufacturing Index, meanwhile, was -23.4, nearly double the -12.0 economists were predicting and down from -15.7 in March.


A closely watched part of the U.S. Treasury yield curve measuring the gap between yields on two- and 10-year Treasury notes , seen as an indicator of economic expectations, was at -62.9 basis points.


The two-year U.S. Treasury yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations, was down 4.6 basis points at 4.144%.


April 24 Monday 12:54PM New York / 1654 GMT Price Current Net Yield % Change (bps) Three-month bills 4.9575 5.0866 -0.030 Six-month bills 4.84 5.0406 -0.022 Two-year note 99-129/256 4.1436 -0.046 Three-year note 99-192/256 3.8395 -0.056 Five-year note 100-20/256 3.6071 -0.058 Seven-year note 100-100/256 3.5606 -0.059 10-year note 99-220/256 3.5166 -0.055 20-year bond 100-64/256 3.8565 -0.051 30-year bond 98-36/256 3.7286 -0.049
DOLLAR SWAP SPREADS


Last (bps) Net


Change


(bps)
U.S. 2-year dollar swap 27.50 0.50
spread
U.S. 3-year dollar swap 18.25 1.00
spread
U.S. 5-year dollar swap 7.50 0.00
spread
U.S. 10-year dollar swap -0.50 -0.25
spread
U.S. 30-year dollar swap -41.00 -0.25
spread



(Reporting by David Randall; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Kirsten Donovan)

Messaging: david.randall.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
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