Banks aren't picking up the slack in demand in the auction rate market.
The price of carbon recovered slightly on Monday after demand for an auction of 3.5 million permits was stronger than expected.
But Treasury auction demand has been strong while gold has faltered and investors have perceived some weakness in the euro and yen.
On the flip side, bond yields are back on the rise in Spain, and Germany saw lackluster demand at an auction of 10-year bunds.
Annalisa Piazza, a strategist at Newedge, said demand at the auction was soft, adding that the total amount sold was just a touch below the maximum target.
And unlike its previous emergency auctions, in late September and October, the price of these funds will be determined by market demand at the auction, not set at the penalty rate that deterred any bank from bidding for the money.
"Poor demand at today's auction was quite surprising, given the recent flight-to-quality mode, " said analysts at Newedge.
Fresh developments coming out of the European Union debt crisis early this week include good demand for a German debt auction and a meeting Monday of EU officials on the crisis.
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Meanwhile, tepid demand at a Spanish government bond auction pushed Spanish bond yields up Wednesday.
The Euro currency and European stock markets were boosted Thursday by a successful Spanish bond auction that saw good investor demand and lower yields.
Treasury yields fell further after investors were encouraged by strong demand for the government's most recent auction.
Demand for Italian government bonsd during a recent auction dropped to 1.47 times the amount on offer, from 1.57 times last month.
Demand was strong despite a record-low auction yield of 1.622%.
The ITA says the tea industry in Bengal - and also in Assam - is in crisis, with falling demand for Indian teas across the world, falling auction prices for teas and rising production costs.
Meantime, a closely watched Spanish government debt auction went off well Thursday amid good investor demand.
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The high demand for U.S. dollars at the ECB auction Wednesday appeared to be more a case of bargain-hunting than of panic.
The fresh safe-haven demand in the gold market Thursday was further evidenced by very strong demand at a U.S. government Treasury note auction at midday.
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An auction for 10-year Italian bonds, the country's first debt auction since the election, met with strong demand despite yields being at their highest level since October.
Demand for both bonds was higher than at the previous auction, and the markets appeared to take heart from this, with European share indexes rising after the result.
Corey Rosenbloom : What I like to do, starting with the bigger picture, is: I create the narrative, and that really comes down to different kinds of market profile principles or auction dynamics, which is just supply and demand.
Michael Leister, senior strategist at Commerzbank in London, said it was a "very strong auction on all accounts", on both the demand side and the pricing side.
But if the initial market demand is not there, a company putting its faith in the auction could miss out on the support of a traditional offering.
In overnight news, a German two-year note auction saw the notes (also called Schatz) fetch strong demand with a yield of only 0.06%.
There was a successful auction of Spanish short-term debt overnight, with yields lower and demand decent.
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With Ofcom's 4G auction starting this month, operators will be wondering just how great the demand from customers is going to be and working out what that means as they bid for spectrum.
In addition, an auction of Italian five-year and 10-year government bonds saw strong demand and produced the lowest yields seen since October 2010.
Italy saw a sign of relief for its economy that has been flashing red on Wednesday, when an auction of its short-term Treasury-bills sold at lower borrowing costs and higher demand.
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