US Treasury at Least Doubles Size of Long Term Bond Buybacks

The US Treasury Department said on Wednesday (US time), just two weeks after publishing its planned quarterly bond buyback calendar, that it is at least doubling the size of its liquidity support buyback operations for securities maturing in 10 to 30 years. According to Boursenews, citing Bloomberg, the change takes effect from September 9; the Treasury's earlier tentative calendar for September 9 through November 4 had shown up to 14 billion dollars in buybacks of 10 to 30 year bonds, a figure that is now at least doubling.

The announcement pulled the yield on the 30 year US Treasury bond, which had risen this week to its highest level since 2007, down about 10 basis points to 5.185 percent. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had previously described the buyback program as one of the tools the department could use to address dysfunction in the Treasury bond market. The move came as long term bond yields rose globally this week and traders prepared for a 16 billion dollar auction of new 20 year bonds.