Treasury Auctions (5,7,10,20,30 year)
Today’s 20-year Treasury Bond auction is the only listed event that may influence mortgage rates. It normally isn’t highly watched with experts traditionally focusing on the 10-year and 30-year security sales. However, with so little scheduled this week after Moody’s downgrade last Friday and the pieces of the proposed budget legislation coming to light that may require more debt to be sold in the future, just how interested investors are in today’s auction could have a stronger impact on the overall bond market than it usually does. A strong demand from investors should lead to afternoon strength in bonds and possibly an intraday improvement to mortgage rates. On the other hand, a lackluster interest would be a warning that the bond market may have some big hurdles in the coming weeks and months. Results will be announced at 1:00 PM ET, meaning any reaction should come during early afternoon trading.