The Bond Market Is Getting Awfully ‘Yippy’ Again: Robert Burgess

US government debt auctions are generally sleepy affairs — except when they’re not. And Wednesday’s sale by the Treasury Department of $16 billion in 20-year bonds definitely qualified for the latter category. It’s unlikely to be the only one.

The offering was the government’s first auction of so-called coupon-bearing debt since Moody’s Ratings on Friday became the last of the three big creditassessors to strip the US of its top triple-A rating, following S&P Global Ratings in 2011 and Fitch Ratings in 2023. The auction was considered subpar on at least two critical measures, the amount of bids received from investors ...