Similar Tumult.

But a 'fluctuating downtrend'.

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1. The U.S. Treasury prefers its debt sales to be humdrum affairs. Lately, they are sparking fireworks in markets. Scrutiny of Treasury auctions—whereby the government funds operations by selling the world’s safest bonds to big banks and dealers—has grown alongside their size. For years, many in Washington and on Wall Street assumed that investors would buy any number of bonds the government issued, no matter the fiscal outlook. Testing that assumption: the sale of $20.8 trillion of new Treasurys in the first 11 months of the year—set to surpass 2020’s record of just under $21 trillion. Whether the market can absorb the rolling waves of debt without disruption is the biggest question on Wall Street ahead of this week’s planned Treasury auctions. A combined $108 billion of 3-year, 10-year and 30-year bonds hit the block Monday and Tuesday, along with $213 billion of shorter-term bills. The last 30-year auction was so poorly received that it rattled other parts of the markets. Investors fear that signs of weak demand might spread similar tumult, raise the cost of government borrowing and hurt the economy. (Source: wsj.com)

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2. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) 2023 Armed Conflict Survey, there are 183 regional and local conflicts underway this year, the highest number in three decades. At the global level, the intensity of conflict has also risen year on year in the reporting period, with the number of fatalities and events increasing by 14% and 28% respectively. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), 459 armed groups of humanitarian concern were active globally as of June 2023, with around 195 million people living under their full or fluid control. This phenomenon is of notable concern for Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa, where a total of 295 groups operate, but it is also an issue in the rest of the world, with 83, 68 and 14 such groups active in Asia, the Americas, and Europe and Eurasia respectively. The IISS video presentation of its survey is here. (Sources: iiss.org, blooomberg.com, youtube.com)