The Financial Times writes "Treasury bill yields rise on US default fears". It says, "Money market funds dumped October Treasury bills on Thursday, in the first sign of investor unease that Washington may not raise the federal debt ceiling in the coming weeks and risk triggering a technical default by the US Treasury on its debt. As the US officials sought to underline the dangers a default would pose, a new report from the Treasury on Thursday pointed to rising yields on Treasury bills as evidence of investors’ concern.... But as the debt ceiling deadline looms and with no sign of accord within Washington, money funds are looking to lighten up on their holdings of October dated bills, said bill traders. The four-week Treasury bill that matures on October 31 more than doubled to a peak of 17 basis points, before steadying to stand at 13bps. Bills that mature in late November and December are quoted at around 2bps." See also, ICI's latest "Money Market Mutual Fund Assets". It says, "Total money market mutual fund assets decreased by $8.51 billion to $2.685 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, October 2, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Taxable government funds decreased by $40 million, taxable non-government funds decreased by $11.29 billion, and tax-exempt funds increased by $2.82 billion."
