FT on Floating Rate Treasuries
The Financial Times writes, "Floating rate Treasuries register strong demand". The article comments, "Investor demand for the first new US Treasury security in 16 years pulled in orders worth nearly six times the size of the issue on Wednesday, ahead of another debt ceiling showdown in Washington. The Treasury sold $15bn of floating rate notes, whose benchmark rate is based on the three-month Treasury bill yield, and attracted orders of $85bn, a healthy bid-to-cover of 5.67 times. Dealers underwriting the sale bought $7.94bn of the sale, with investors accounting for just under half of the entire issue.... Money market funds, starved by low yields and worried about sharp swings in short-term bills because of the prospect of another Federal debt ceiling battle in March, are expected to seek the new floating rate note that has a maturity of two years. Peter Crane, president of Crane Data, a money market research firm, said: "Treasury money market funds are so starved for yield that anything giving them an extra basis point or two, and with the same quality and liquidity features of a Treasury security, means it's a no brainer for them to own.""
