<font color=green> John Berry's "Basis Points"
washingtonpost.com
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Rearranged + boldface is mine.
>>> BASIS POINTS
Sunday, September 9, 2001; Page H03
The bad news in the August employment report released Friday helped the bond market, as bad news often does.
Yields on two-year U.S. Treasury notes fell to 3.51 percent, the lowest level in history.
Similarly, yields on five-year notes dropped to 4.30 percent, the lowest since May 1961.
Ten-year notes were down to 4.78 percent, which, except for a few days last spring, is the lowest level since 1967.
The jump in the unemployment rate to 4.9 percent from 4.5 percent
... raised new questions about the strength of any pickup in growth this fall, and
... removed a lot of the doubt in analysts' minds that the Federal Reserve will cut its target for overnight rates again when policymakers meet Oct. 2.
Still, some reaction to the employment report may have been overdone.
The surprise really was that the jobless rate had been stuck around 4.5 percent for four months in a no-growth economy.
... Most of the increase was an overdue catch-up, several analysts said.
Tomorrow Treasury will sell $14 billion in three-month bills and $12 billion in six-month bills, which yielded 3.23 percent and 3.18 percent, respectively, in when-issued trading Friday.
Treasury will also announce tomorrow details of an auction of four-week bills to be held Tuesday.
-- John M. Berry
© 2001 The Washington Post Company <<< |
