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Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TobagoJack who wrote (32745)	5/1/2003 12:22:05 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 74559

US to issue a record $58bn of debt By Jenny Wiggins in New York, Paivi Munter in London and Barney Jopson in Tokyo Published: April 30 2003 12:28 \| Last Updated: April 30 2003 21:44 The US Treasury said Wednesday it would issue a record $58bn in debt this quarter to combat a rising budget deficit, but bond investors shrugged this aside and Treasury prices rose sharply on fears over the economy. Market estimates for the 2003 budget deficit range from $350bn to $450bn, almost $150bn higher than the start of the fiscal year and the shortfall is thought to increase next year. "Most expect that the budget situation will deteriorate further in 2004," the Treasury's borrowing advisory committee said. The Treasury is reintroducing the three-year note this quarter after suspending it in 1998. It will auction $22bn in three-year notes, $18bn of 5-year notes and $18bn in 10-year notes next week. The Treasury has decided to hold more auctions rather than dramatically increasing their size. Next quarter, it will start selling 5-year notes on a monthly basis and issue 10-year notes more often. "This gives [the Treasury] tremendous flexibility to handle any of the wide range of budget outcomes that may occur," said Stephen Stanley, senior market economist at RBS Greenwich Capital. Treasury inflation-indexed securities (TIIS) will also be sold more often in response to increased demand. Treasury prices were higher on Wednesday as an influential manufacturing report showed activity weakened more than expected in April, and Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan warned "lingering business caution" could impede economic performance. By late afternoon in New York, the 10-year Treasury note gained 11/16 to 99 31/32 to yield 3.845 per cent while the 30-year bond rose 15/32 at 106 5/16 to yield 4.769 per cent. The two-year note was 7/32 higher at 100 7/32 to yield 1.493 per cent. UK gilt prices recovered in late trade, defying the pound's fall to a four-year low against the euro. Investors turned more bond-friendly as the London stock market dipped just before the close. Earlier, gilts had come under pressure from comments by Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, defending his bullish growth forecasts for the next couple of years. Two-year gilt yields fell 4 basis points to 3.303 per cent, while 10-year yields declined 2bp to 4.350 per cent. Gains for eurozone bond prices increased toward the close, thanks to weak US manufacturing numbers. But trading volumes were meagre ahead of May Day. Further support for eurozone bonds came from France, where the unemployment rate rose to 9.3 per cent in April from 9.2 per cent in the previous month. Two-year schatz yields fell 5.5 basis points to 2.437 per cent, while 10-year yields eased 4.4bp to 4.100 per cent. Japanese government bond prices ended unchanged despite the Bank of Japan's decision to ease monetary policy further. Following a public holiday on Tuesday, the yield on the benchmark 10-year JGB was steady at 0.605 per cent, with the price at 100.885. The Bank of Japan's policy board announced that it would increase its target for the balance of current account deposits it holds, its first monetary easing measure since October last year. Analysts, however, said the market's limp reaction demonstrated that investors did not expect such measures to help Japan break out of the economic slump that has caused money to flood into the bond market.

To: TobagoJack who wrote (32745)	5/1/2003 11:11:22 AM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

there is definitely a trend that the local provincial/county gov. take the matter to their own hand even though with the central gov. calling of NOT to. Now people from Beijing, as well as HK and Guangdong and ShanXi all become persona grata<ng>. And I read the other day that one county next to Beijing used a heavy construction equipment to dig a big pit of the road and cut off the traffic from/to Beijing at the county official's order, only had to repair it next day.