Weak Demand for Five Year Treasury Notes

The indirect bid -- demand from domestic and foreign institutions, including foreign central banks -- for the $34 billion five-year Treasury note auction was 30%, compared to 48.9% from the previous auction in February and an average of 30.1% for the last 10 auctions. The weak U.S. auction came after a sale of U.K. government debt Thursday failed, the first failed auction of conventional U.K. government bonds since 1995. Like the U.S., the U.K. is hoping to sell a large quantity of new debt as it looks to stimulate its economy, but there are signs that investors are balking.