The U.S. Treasury department's auction of $39B 10-year notes drew strong demand on Wednesday, despite a broader bruising bond selloff sparked by President Trump's imposition of the steepest American tariffs in over a century. 

Trump's sweeping reciprocal tariffs announcement has sent equities across the globe into a tailspin, while bringing Wall Street to the brink of bear market territory. Recession alarm bells are now ringing across the world.

Fixed-income traditionally provides a refuge in such a scenario. Investors would normally snap up bonds for safety, driving yields lower. However, that hasn't happened. Instead, longer-term U.S. Treasury yields have spiked since Monday, with the benchmark 10-year yield (US10Y) topping 4.50% for the first time since February.

In this context, Wednesday's auction drew particular interest as market participants try to gauge the demand for bonds. Reasons for the broader selloff range from an unwinding of the basis trade to foreign holders dumping U.S. bonds.

Wednesday's 10-year note auction's high yield of 4.435% came in significantly below the when issued market yield (also known as the "snap" price) of 4.465%. That denoted a trade through of 3 basis points, which is tied for the second-best on record.   

Here are some exchange-traded funds linked to the fixed-income markets: (NASDAQ:TLT), (NYSEARCA:TLH), (NASDAQ:IEF), (NASDAQ:IEI), (NASDAQ:SHY), (NYSEARCA:SGOV), (NYSEARCA:SCHO), (NYSEARCA:BIL), (NYSEARCA:AGG), (NASDAQ:BND), (NASDAQ:VCIT), (NYSEARCA:MUB), (NASDAQ:MBB), (NYSEARCA:JNK), (NYSEARCA:LQD), (NYSEARCA:HYG), and (NYSEARCA:TIP).