The share of Treasurys won at auction this week by the banks and investment firms that underwrite U.S. debt sales headed toward a record annual low as investors sought a haven in the world’s safest securities.

The auction award to indirect bidders, an investor class that includes foreign central banks, was the biggest since August 2011 at Thursday’s offering of $29 billion of seven-year debt. Direct bidders, a category that includes pension funds and insurers, took the second-highest share in almost a year of the $35 billion sale of five-year notes on April 23. The Federal Reserve meets next week and the Labor Department issues its monthly employment report next Friday.

“You’ve seen support of Treasurys continue, as there had been an expectation that economic numbers would start to pick up more after the harsh winter we had,” Jason Rogan, managing director of U.S. government trading at Guggenheim Securities LLC, a New York-based brokerage for institutional investors, said Thursday. “So far, you haven’t seen the data meet those expectations just yet. If we continue to see better data we should see higher yields, but the data has to turn first.”

Seven-year note yields fell two basis points, or 0.02 percentage point, to 2.27 percent Thursday in New York, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader prices. They reached a 2014 high of 2.46 percent on Jan. 2 and a low for the year of 2.05 percent on Feb. 3. Benchmark 10-year note yields decreased two basis points to 2.68 percent.

Treasurys gained after Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Ukraine against continuing its anti-separatist offensive, fueling refuge demand.

Smallest Share

The Fed’s 22 primary dealers, which are obligated to bid in U.S. debt auctions, are on track to purchase their smallest share of the sales since at least 2003, data compiled by Bloomberg show. They have bought 41.6 percent of all offerings this year, compared with 46.1 percent for all of 2013. Indirect bidders have won 41.8 percent of the offerings, compared with 36.3 percent last year, while direct bidders have taken 16.6 percent, on pace for the second highest proportion following the record 17.7 percent last year.

“At the start of the year, there was universal sentiment that rates would head higher, and it became a one-way trade, and then the data came in weaker, and now we are stuck here, looking for conviction that the economy is getting better and that the Fed is getting closer to tighter monetary policy,” Thomas Simons, a government-debt economist at the New York-based primary dealer Jefferies LLC, said Thursday. “But we’ve had several months that haven’t told us anything one way or the other.”

Note Auctions

The U.S. sold $96 billion of two-, five- and seven-year notes this week.

Indirect bidders purchased 49.9 percent of the seven-year notes sold Thursday, compared with an average of 42.7 percent for the past 10 sales of the maturity. Primary dealers bought 31 percent, versus a 10-sale average of 36.7 percent. Direct bidders bought 19.1 percent. The auction yielded 2.317 percent.

At the five-year auction on Wednesday, direct bidders purchased 18.6 percent of the debt, the second-highest since May. The highest level was reached in March. Indirect bidders bought 44.9 percent, versus an average of 46 percent at the previous 10 sales. Primary dealers acquired 36.5 percent, compared with an average of 42.6 percent at the past 10 sales. The sale yielded 1.732 percent.

Primary dealers bought 57.7 percent of the $32 billion offering of two-year notes on Tuesday, the most since May, amid speculation the Fed will raise interest rates before the securities mature. The securities drew a yield of 0.447 percent.

Dealers’ Share

Dealers have taken 42 percent of the two-, five- and seven- year notes sold at auction this year, compared with 45.6 percent during 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Their awards have declined in two-year debt to 47.7 percent, from 52.6 percent; in five-year notes to 36.8 percent, from 42.9 percent; and in seven-year securities to 30.9 percent, from 40.8 percent.

Direct and indirect investors have taken 69.1 percent of seven-year notes sold this year, up from 59.2 percent in 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. They have bought 63.2 percent of five-year debt, versus 57.1 percent last year, and 52.3 percent of two-year securities compared with 47.4 percent in 2013.

Investors have bid 3.04 times the $742 billion of notes and bonds sold by the U.S. Treasury this year, compared with 2.87 times last year and 3.15 times in 2012, the record high, according to Treasury data compiled by Bloomberg.