US Treasury debt prices fell on Wednesday as six top central banks moved to prevent a global credit crunch stemming from Europe, and encouraging US economic data drove investors into equity markets. Prices of long-dated Treasuries slid more than two points as the orchestrated action by central banks, although far from solving Europe's debt problems, showed some level of global coordination to contain the spillover of the eurozone crisis.
"This global central bank coordination is a sign that folks in the right places are getting it," said George Goncalves, head of US interest rates strategy at Nomura Securities International in New York. In a strategy similar to that adopted during the 2008 financial crisis, the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, as well as the central banks of Canada, Britain, Japan and Switzerland, agreed to lower the cost of existing dollar swap lines by 50 basis points starting December 5.
"By no means does this address all of the issues facing markets, and we remain worried European Union policymakers might drop the ball, but it removes one roadblock and signals that perhaps more help is on the way," Goncalves added. Investors, at least temporarily relieved about the spreading of the eurozone crisis into the banking system, focused instead on better-than-expected US economic data, including private payrolls, manufacturing and home sales.
Investors sold safe-haven assets such as Treasuries and rushed into stocks, driving key Wall Street indexes more than 3 percent higher. Benchmark 10-year Treasury notes fell 25/32 in price to yield 2.07 percent, up from 1.99 percent late Tuesday. Yields earlier rose to 2.11 percent, their highest since November 14.
Thirty-year bonds slid 2-3/32 points in price to yield 3.07 percent, compared to 2.97 percent late Tuesday. Raising expectations of a strong non-farm payrolls report on Friday, the ADP National Employment Report showed the pace of job growth in the private sector accelerated in November, with US employers adding 206,000 jobs. That surpassed economists' expectations for a gain of 130,000 jobs, according to a Reuters survey. October's private payrolls were also revised up to an increase of 130,000 from the previously reported 110,000.
"(E)ven allowing for a 25,000 - decline in public sector employment, our forecast that non-farm payrolls increased by 100,000 now looks a little low, so we are revising it up to 140,000," said Paul Ashworth, chief US economist at Capital Economics in Toronto. The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago business barometer rose to 62.6 from 58.4 in October, well above economists' forecast of 58.4. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the regional economy.
Comments
Comments are closed.