France-Spain Bond Sales Win Investor Backing After Central Bank Palliative
Spain and France sold 8.1 billion euros ($10.9 billion) of bonds today, sending yields lower across Europe, a day after six central banks jointly moved to reduce financing costs to banks.
Spain sold 3.75 billion euros of notes and had to pay the most since at least 2005 to borrow for five years, with investors ordering more than twice the amount sold. France, rated AAA, auctioned 4.3 billion euros of debt and managed to sell a 10-year bond at 3.18 percent, less than at a previous auction on Nov. 3.
The debt sales were a test of investor confidence after the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and four other central banks in a globally coordinated effort yesterday cut the cost of emergency dollar funding for European banks. The central banks acted after financing costs rose following euro-area leaders’ failure to bolster the region’s rescue fund as planned.
“They were both pretty good auctions,” said Huw Worthington, fixed income strategist at Barclays Capital in London “The levels are higher than they would like, but the actual auctions were strong. The central bank action yesterday has certainly helped.”
As the crisis that began in Greece two years ago moves to the euro-area’s core, leaders are struggling to convince investors they can contain the risk and assure the euro’s survival.
Spanish Cancelation
Italy, with the second-largest public debt burden in the euro region after Greece, was forced to pay almost 8 percent to sell three-year debt on Nov. 29, the highest since 1996. The same day, Belgium paid the most in three years to sell six-month notes.
France sold bonds due in October 2017, October 2021, April 2026, and April 2041. Spain auctioned notes maturing in April 2015, January 2016 and January 2017.
Spain changed the securities it planned to sell at the auction, opting for longer-dated notes that already trade instead of a new benchmark three-year bond, citing market conditions. Spain’s short-term borrowing costs are approaching the levels of longer-term yields as the gap between two-year and 10-year rates narrowed last week to the least in three years.
The difference between yields for three-year and five-year notes narrowed to 10 basis points, or 0.10 percentage point, on Nov. 23, and was 44 basis points as of 10:30 a.m. London time. Greek and Portuguese short-term rates rose above long-term yields just before they sought bailouts.
Big Banks
Spain’s Treasury has already issued more than 16 billion euros each of the 2015 and 2016 bonds and more than 14 billion euros of the 2017 securities, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, making them more liquid than a new bond.
Spanish banks may also prop up the auction as Treasury data show they increased their holdings of the nation’s bonds to 142.4 billion euros in September, the highest on record, from 140.6 billion euros in August. Lenders are also increasing their dependence on the ECB, borrowing 76 billion euros in October, the most in more than a year, Bank of Spain data show.
“France and Spain both have big banks so that should help out at these auctions: typically what we hear is that they are refraining in the secondary market but they are still active in the primary market,” Kommer van Trigt, a fund manager at Robeco Groep NV in Rotterdam, said in a telephone interview.
French Auction
France decided to press ahead with the sale of bonds today, braving the market turbulence, even though it has completed its funding requirements for 2011. The extra yield demanded to lend to France for 10 years rose to as much as 204 basis points more than the German rate on Nov. 17, the widest spread since 1990. The gap was 28 basis points in April.
Euro-area finance ministers said on Nov. 29 they would seek a greater role for the International Monetary Fund and ECB to top up efforts to bolster the region’s European Financial Stability Facility rescue fund.
They agreed on a plan to guarantee up to 30 percent of bond issues from troubled governments and to develop investment vehicles that would boost the facility’s ability to intervene in primary and secondary bond markets.
Spanish Finance Minister Elena Salgado, who’s set to be replaced on Dec. 22 when Prime Minister-elect Mariano Rajoy takes charge, said the measures will create a preventive firewall as there’s no “case on the table for it to be used.”
‘Dysfunctional’ Market
“A commitment by the ECB to buy is the only solution to the crisis,” said Christoph Kind, head of asset allocation at Frankfurt Trust, which manages about $20 billion from Frankfurt.
The ECB, which started buying Italian and Spanish debt in August, is resisting pressure to step up its response to the crisis. ECB President Mario Draghi told the European Parliament in Brussels today that the bond buying program was “limited” and said that euro-region governments unifying their fiscal policies would be a more effective way to end the debt crisis.
To contact the reporters on this story: Emma Ross-Thomas in Madrid at erossthomas@bloomberg.net; Lukanyo Mnyanda in Edinburgh at lmnyanda@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Craig Stirling at cstirling1@bloomberg.net Daniel Tilles at dtilles@bloomberg.net
Spanish Bonds Gain After Auction
Victor R. Caivano/AP Photo
People walking on Madrid's Gran Via are seen reflected near a Spanish flag.
People walking on Madrid's Gran Via are seen reflected near a Spanish flag. Photographer: Victor R. Caivano/AP Photo
Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht talks about the move by six central banks to assure liquidity in Europe's sovereign-debt crisis. De Gucht, speaking yesterday with Bloomberg's Deirdre Bolton, also discusses EU-U.S. economic relations. (Source: Bloomberg)
Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Troy Gayeski, senior portfolio manager at SkyBridge Capital LLC, talks about the outlook for global markets and investment strategy. He speaks with Scarlet Fu on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack." (Source: Bloomberg)
Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- David Riley, head of global sovereign ratings at Fitch Ratings Ltd., discusses the outlook for French bonds, the U.S. economy and efforts to resolve the euro-zone crisis. He talks with Maryam Nemazee on Bloomberg Television's "The Pulse." (Source: Bloomberg)
Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Greek workers go on general strike for the seventh time this year today as Prime Minister Lucas Papademos prepares to push the 2012 budget through Parliament. Linzie Janis reports on Bloomberg Television's "First Look." (Source: Bloomberg)
Spain, France Take on Crisis With 8.1 Billion-Euro Debt Sale
Balint Porneczi/Bloomberg
France, rated AAA, auctioned 4.3 billion euros of debt and managed to sell a 10-year bond at 3.18 percent, less than at a previous auction on Nov. 3.
France, rated AAA, auctioned 4.3 billion euros of debt and managed to sell a 10-year bond at 3.18 percent, less than at a previous auction on Nov. 3. Photographer: Balint Porneczi/Bloomberg
Spain, France Take on Crisis With 8.1 Billion-Euro Debt Sale
Denis Doyle/Bloomberg
Spain sold 3.75 billion euros of notes and had to pay the most since at least 2005 to borrow for five years, with investors ordering more than twice the amount sold.
Spain sold 3.75 billion euros of notes and had to pay the most since at least 2005 to borrow for five years, with investors ordering more than twice the amount sold. Photographer: Denis Doyle/Bloomberg
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