US Treasury doubles long-bond buybacks to ease market stress
What's new: The larger operations start Sept. 9 through Nov. 4, and 10-year and 30-year yields fell after the move.
The Treasury Department will more than double its repurchases of older long-term government debt, stepping in as stress builds in the far end of the bond market. Beginning Sept. 9 and running through Nov. 4, Treasury will raise the maximum size of buyback operations to at least $4 billion from $2 billion and focus on the 10- to 20-year and 20- to 30-year sectors. The move targets a stretch of the market where demand has weakened and yields have climbed to levels not seen in nearly two decades. After the change was released, the benchmark 10-year yield dropped 6 basis points to 4.647% and the 30-year yield fell 9 basis points to 5.196%, while stock futures rose.