Wells Fargo's latest "Overview, Strategy, and Outlook" publication, released late yesterday, says, "March saw higher rates in all sectors of the money markets. An increase in the supply of all types of U.S. Treasury securities drove dealers to finance them in the repo markets. This rise in supply pushed overnight repo rates up from 0.10% in February to 0.20% in the latter part of March. As overnight rates became more attractive to money market participants, the issuers of other types of instruments raised their rates in order to attract investors. This move pushed rates higher across the curve and in all sectors." A table in the piece shows rates for Overnight Repurchase Agreements moving from 0.10 to 0.20% in March; rates for 1-Month Agency Discount Notes moving from 0.08 to 0.11%; rates for 1-Month Commercial Paper moving from 0.18 to 0.22%; rates for 3-Month Treasury Bills moving from 0.12 to 0.15%; and rates for 3-Month LIBOR moving from 0.25 to 0.29%. Wells' Dave Sylvester writes, "[I]f it chooses, the Fed could raise its target for Fed funds and still argue that rates are at historical lows. The question being debated is whether economic conditions and the inflationary outlook will permit such a move. Either way, it appears that money market yields, thanks to a number of basic supply and demand imbalances, have picked themselves up off the bottom, at least for now."
