While there have been rumblings about inflation fears, with consumer prices spiking to a record in May, investment demand for Treasuries and related exchange traded funds remains robust.
Despite data on Thursday that showed U.S. consumer prices rose in May to a 13 year high, yields on 10-year bonds slipped back toward recent lows amid signs that traders kept unwinding short positions, Bloomberg reports. Bond prices have an inverse relationship with yields, so rising prices coincide with falling yields.
The bid for Treasuries also reflects ongoing bets that the Federal Reserve views inflation pressures as likely to be “transitory.”
Additionally, while the Fed has auctioned off debt with an interest rate of 0.00% starting in April, no interest still appealed to certain investors with too much cash on their hands, according to Bloomberg. The amount of money they placed at the Fed overnight at 0.00% rose to $497.4 billion as of June 8, the most ever.
“The market will continue to digest the data in an effort to determine the degree to which the move is transitory,” BMO Capital Markets strategist Ian Lyngen said in a note. “This afternoon’s long bond auction continues to loom.”
The inundation of cash going into the short-end markets, which has been highlighted by unprecedented usage of the Fed’s reverse repurchase agreement facility, could also be potentially supporting demand for Treasuries. Even at these levels, those instruments offer more yield than many alternatives.
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