Econ--"Basis Points" by John M. Berry, The Washington Post...
washingtonpost.com
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Edited for ease of reading:
>>>Sunday , July 9, 2000 ; H02
Another soft report and another good week for bonds. On Friday the Labor Department reported that payrolls increased by only 11,000 jobs last month, giving bonds another boost. Private payrolls did rise but averaged a monthly increase of only a little over 100,000 in the April-June period.
By just about everyone's assessment, the news lowered the odds that the Federal Reserve will raise its 6.5 percent federal funds target next month because the numbers clearly suggest economic growth has slowed.
Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, who has had little to say recently about the Fed's intentions, is scheduled to testify July 20 before the Senate Banking Committee.
Between now and then, there will be some bad price news because of increases in world oil prices, but Saudi Arabia has already said it is increasing production to bring them down again.
Tomorrow, Treasury will sell $8.5 billion in three-month bills and $7.5 billion in six-month bills, followed Wednesday by $5 billion in 10-year inflation-indexed notes. In when-issued trading Friday, the bills yielded 6.05 percent and 6.22 percent, respectively. No similar information was available for the indexed notes, but an issue of the notes sold in February yielded 4.01 percent in the secondary market.
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