Stocks may be masquerading as a big bounce today, driven by a VIX slam which has gotten the algos to ramp the S&P higher and of course a perfectly innocuous gold slam which as usual took out the entire bid stack, but the real money is furiously going elsewhere, such as today’s 4 Week auction. Two things were notable: first – the rate was a solid 0.000%. This is not that surprising: after all under ZIRP, and as long as the Fed has control and the USD is the reserve currency, ultra-short term maturities are cash equivalent, which is why investors don’t mind getting zero return in exchange for 1 month maturities.
However, what was far more notable is that the Bid to Cover in today’s auction just soared to 6.36x, highest than last week’s 5.66x, and the highest since December of 2011, when the scramble into short-term paper was a function of year end window dressing (made since unncessary courtesy of the Fed’s Reverse Repo facility).
So while algos are levitating stocks higher based on simple carry currency/VIX correlations, why the sudden real money scramble for the safety of near-term paper?
Â
Finally, what is also notable is that all ultra-short durations are now trading at negative yields
Â
