Mostly: Classical

[amarksp]

correction:
"are a god's sent gift for the Dollar"

should be:
"are a god's sent gift for the US Treasury Auctions"
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Auctions

The three-year notes were sold at a yield of 4.458 percent, compared with the pre-auction estimate of 4.463 percent based on the average forecast of seven bond-trading firms surveyed by Bloomberg News. The securities will mature in November 2008.

Dealers and investors placed bids for 2.42 times the amount of securities offered. The so-called bid-to-cover ratio was the highest since 1998 and compared with 2.31 at the most recent sale of three-year securities in August.

``The higher yields are more attractive for a lot of people,' said David Glocke, who manages about $10 billion in Treasury bond funds at Vanguard Group Inc. in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

Indirect bidders, the class of investors that includes foreign central banks, bought 29.9 percent of the securities, compared with 28 percent in August. Since the Treasury Department started releasing bidder-participation figures in May 2003, the share of three-year note sales won by indirect bidders had ranged from 18.7 percent to 53.6 percent, and averaged 37.5 percent.

Foreign Demand

Foreign investors own about half the $4 trillion of U.S. marketable securities outstanding, up from less than 40 percent three years ago, according to the Treasury.

The dollar's recent gain against the euro and yen will help spur demand, said Hidehiko Maejima, international bond strategist at BNP Paribas Securities Japan Ltd. in Tokyo. The dollar this quarter has climbed 2.5 percent versus the euro, rising to a two- year high today, and 3.9 percent against the yen.

``The upward momentum of the dollar will encourage foreign investors to participate in the auctions,' Maejima said.

Today's auction will be followed tomorrow by the sale of $13 billion in five-year notes, and $13 billion in 10-year notes the day after.