Business news for Mon, 24 Dec 2007 & with words department+trading. 3 news.

VIETNAM widened the daily trading band for the dong, giving the central bank more scope to slow inflation by allowing the currency to strengthen. The dong can now trade 0.75 percent either side of a rate set by State Bank of Vietnam each day, compared with 0.5 percent previously, according to Dao Xuan Tuan, head of foreign-exchange management at the bank's currency department. Vietnam has allowed the currency to strengthen by 1.3 percent since August 20 as consumer-price inflation accelerated to a 10 percent annual pace in November, the fastest in more than three years. The dong is little changed in the year, following an 11-year run of depreciation designed to make the nation's exports more competitive. Vietnam faces "a dilemma with trade deficits growing and inflation picking up," said Masashi Kurabe, head of the foreign-exchange sales & trading group in Hong Kong at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd, part of Japan's largest lender. "The country may be aiming to

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The results of the Treasury Department's 3-month and 6-month bill auction show demand remains robust for risk-free short-term instruments ahead of the end of the year. The Treasury awarded $20 billion in 3-month bills at 3.28%, compared with last week's 3.0%. The bid-to-cover -- which measures bids received to bids tendered -- was 2.32, unchanged from last week. The indirect bid, a carefully watched category that includes foreign buyers, was 26.4%, up from 16.0% the week before. The Treasury also awarded $19 billion in 6-month bills at 3.49% compared with 3.28% last week. The indirect bid rose to 37.1% from 30.5% and the bid-to-cover rose to 2.61 from 2.34 last week. The auction "was well-bid, helped by the $2 billion cut in offering size to $39 billion, though light trading conditions limited demand," wrote analysts at Action Economics.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Treasurys were slightly lower Monday, pushing up yields, as firm stock prices decreased the appeal of fixed-income assets in extremely thin pre-holiday trading. U.S. bond trading will end early on Monday, and overnight Japanese and German markets were closed Monday for holidays. "With the holiday-shortened week, our expectations for any paradigm shifting events are pretty light," said David Ader, U.S. government bond strategist at RBS Greenwich Capital. "With the bench players now in the field until the New Year, we would err on the side of limited conviction for any moves over the next few trading sessions." The benchmark 10-year Treasury note was down 7/32 at 100 12/32, with a yield of 4.2%. The 30-year bond was down 10/32 at 106 9/32 with a yield of 4.61%. The two-year note was down 2/32 at 99 26/32 with a yield of 3.21%. On Wednesday, the Treasury Department will sell $22 billion in two-year notes, and on Thursday, it will sell $13 billion in five-year notes.