The benchmark Treasury bill jumped above 1.50% Thursday afternoon after investors showed lukewarm demand for $ 62 billion in 7-year bonds. The 10-year bond earns TMUBMUSD10Y,
climbed 15 basis points to 1.54%. Bond prices move in the opposite direction to yields. Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at the Bleakley Advisory Group, described the results of the 7-year banknote auction as “terrible,” after falling 4.2 basis points, the highest in the auction’s history. The tail is the gap between the highest proceeds the Treasury sold at the auction and the proceeds before the auction began. Analysts have cited the 1.50% level as a major bond market threshold that could predict problems for US equities.