REUTERS - Nov 4, 2008
* Bond investors step to sidelines as Americans vote
* Credit thaw weakens bid for short-term govt debt
* Pending debt supply also undermines any bonds bid
By Chris Reese
NEW YORK, Nov 4 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury debt prices were little changed on Tuesday in thin volume as investors stepped to the sidelines while Americans headed to the polls to elect a new president.
Shorter-term debt prices dipped on continued signs of a thawing in short-term lending markets and worries over a wave of pending debt supply.
Signs that short-term lending markets may be freeing up "was a little comforting for the risk-takers and takes away from the bid in Treasuries," said John Spinello, Treasury bond strategist with Jefferies & Co in New York. "There is also a psychological supply overhang in the market because of all of the debt that is going to be coming."
Benchmark 10-year Treasury notes <US10YT=RR> were trading unchanged in price for a yield of 3.92 percent, while 2-year notes <US2YT=RR>_were 1/32 lower for a yield of 1.47 percent from 1.45 percent.
Global stocks rose overnight after Australia's central bank cut interest rates by an aggressive 3/4 of a percentage point. U.S. stocks also opened higher on Tuesday on hopes that global moves to end the credit crisis may ease an economic slowdown.
Safe-haven bidding for government bonds was undermined on Tuesday by evidence of some further loosening in short-term credit, with London interbank offered rates (Libor) for three-month dollar funds posting its 17th consecutive daily decline to the lowest since early June.
The lower Libor rates were seen as a sign that the massive amounts of liquidity poured into the global banking system, combined with interest rate cuts around the globe, were thawing short-term loan markets that had all but completely frozen.
Such a thawing was taking by investors as a sign that the worst of the global credit crisis may have passed, which helped to boost stocks but ate away at government debt prices.
Any bid for bonds was also handicapped by concern over an expected raft of new debt to be issued in coming months to supply various government programs meant to maintain life in the flagging financial industry.
The Treasury on Wednesday will announce the terms of the quarterly refunding it will conduct the following week and which will bring a hefty amount of new supply to market. (Reporting by Chris Reese; Editing by Tom Hals)
