Stellar 2Y Auction Stops Through On Most Foreign Buying Since March 2025

After last week's post "Bessent buyback" fireworks, which sent yields on a rollercoaster ride in the subsequent days, many were very curious to see how today's sale of $69BN in 2 year paper, the week's first coupon auction, would go and whether Bessent inadvertently had impaired primary market issuance. In the end, the auction went through without a glitch.

The $69BN auction of 2Y notes priced at a high yield of 4.204%, down notably from 4.315% last month as rate hike odds have eased substantially, and stopped through the When Issued 4.208% by 0.4bps, the 3rd consecutive stopping through auction in a row.

The bid to cover was an unspectacular 2.599, down from 2.662 in July and the lowest since March (it was below the 2.611 recent average).

The internals were stronger with Indirects awarded 66.0%, up from 56.6% and the highest allocation to foreign buyers since March 2025. Directs dropped to 23.09% from 34.05%, the lowest since March, which left 10.9% for Dealers the second lowest since February. 

Overall, this was a stellar 2Y auction and one would hardly have guessed that the bond market had gone through the most turmoil of 2026 just a few days earlier.