Bond Auctions: You Never Hear About The Good Ones

RIA · Oct 12, 2026

A weak Treasury auction brings doom-and-gloom headlines, while strong ones go largely unnoticed. Simply, the good auctions don't feed the bearish bond narrative. Despite bond bears warning yields will hit 6% or higher, demand for this past week's 10- and 30-year auctions was off the charts. The 10-year note auction on Wednesday sold $39 billion at a 5.300% high yield. It stopped 1.7 basis points through the when-issued level, meaning it cleared much better than the market expected. Thursday’s 30-year $22.5 billion bond auction was similar. The box plots below, courtesy of Exante Data, show…