Business Digest: 2-year Treasury yields highest since October

INVESTING

2-year Treasury yields highest since October

Yields on two-year Treasury notes reached their highest levels since October as an investor class that includes foreign central banks bought the least of the debt in five months at Monday's record-tying $44 billion auction.

Indirect bidders purchased 34.8 percent of the notes, the lowest amount since July, and below the 45 percent average for the past 10 auctions. Treasurys of all maturities have fallen 3.6 percent this year, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes. That would be the worst performance since at least 1978, when Merrill began collecting the data.

"We're not structurally set up to absorb this much volume on a week like this," said Jim Vogel, head of agency-debt research at FTN Financial. "There aren't enough bargain hunters around to tidy things up when they get sloppy."

-- Bloomberg News

REGULATORS

Groups petition FTC over Google-AdMob deal

Two consumer groups asked the Federal Trade Commission to block Google's planned acquisition of AdMob because, they said, the $750 million deal would diminish competition in the mobile advertising market.

The takeover would give Google dominance in mobile advertising and hurt consumers, the Center for Digital Democracy and Consumer Watchdog said in a statement. The groups said they sent a joint letter to the FTC.

Google aims to boost its sales of ads that appear in applications on mobile phones such as Apple's iPhone. Google and AdMob combined would form the largest mobile-advertising company, with 30 to 40 percent of the market, according to research firm IDC.