Treasury bills deluge worries US investors as debt-ceiling relief may be short-lived

Selling of up to $1 trillion in bills could suck significant amount of liquidity from financial markets

The Treasury Department in Washington. The US cash stockpile currently sits at $39 billion, the lowest level since 2017. Reuters

Bond traders look set to pivot from worrying the US would not raise its debt limit to fretting about what the increase means for money markets.

The concern is, with a tentative deal pending, the Treasury will soon replenish its cash balance by selling more than $1 trillion of bills through the end of the third quarter, according to recent estimates.

The US cash stockpile currently sits at $39 billion, the lowest since 2017.

A deluge is likely to suck a significant amount of liquidity out of financial markets. That could add pressure given the US Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates and shrinking its balance sheet.

With the Treasury competing with banks for cash, lenders may see their own short-term funding rates rise, forcing them to boost the borrowing costs they impose on businesses and households.

Bank of America analysts have estimated that would have the same economic impact as a quarter-point interest rate increase, a squeeze which would come as traders are already predicting the Fed could lift its benchmark rate by another 25 basis points by July.

While yields on short-term Treasuries may drop on the relief of an agreement, the fall would be limited as investors try to assess what comes next.

“There will be a knee-jerk reaction in T-bills as that area of the market has borne the burden of uncertainty,” said Kevin Flanagan, head of fixed income strategy at WisdomTree Investments. “So yields come down from their highs but because the Treasury will increase issuance, there is a floor in yields for that market.”

The debt limit dispute has generated tensions in markets, with investors demanding higher yields on securities set to be repaid shortly.

Rates on instruments due in early June topped 7 per cent at one stage last week. The price on credit default swaps – derivatives that allow investors to insure against non-payment – peaked well above levels in the 2011 debt limit episode.

The US cash stockpile, or the Treasury General Account, will soar to $550 billion as of the end of next month and hit $600 billion three months later, according to the department’s estimates.

Efrain Tejeda, a short-term interest rate strategist at Morgan Stanley, forecasts T-bill issuance will amount to $730 billion over the next three months and about $1.25 trillion over the June to December period. During the 2017-2018 debt-ceiling episode, the Treasury ended up issuing $500 billion of bills in about six weeks.

An important piece of the puzzle is the Fed’s reverse repurchase agreement facility – called the RRP – which is where money-market funds park cash with the central bank overnight at a rate of slightly more than 5 per cent.

That programme – currently more than $2 trillion – is also a liability at the Fed. If the Treasury account increases but RRPs drop, then the drain on bank reserves would be lower.

Matt King, a strategist at Citigroup, has warned money funds’ tendency to keep cash in RRPs will most likely persist, which could mean a sizeable drain in reserves when the Treasury’s cash jumps.