US Treasury Triples Long-Dated Debt Buyback to $6 Billion

(Bloomberg) -- The US Treasury said it will purchase up to $6 billion of longer-dated government debt in the first operation under an expanded buybacks program, showcasing Secretary Scott Bessent's resolve to stem the recent rise in borrowing costs.

The maximum size is triple the amount initially communicated to investors of $2 billion. That plan was discarded in a surprise Aug. 19 announcement, when the Treasury said it would "at least double" the size of such operations.

Some dealers had ramped up their predictions for Thursday's buyback operation after Bessent publicly touted the potential for purchases of over $4 billion. The Treasury chief on Tuesday reiterated that while he cannot alter the "equilibrium" price of Treasuries, his objective was to slow moves down and prevent any damaging narrative taking hold in the world's biggest bond market.

Treasuries extended an earlier decline after the release, with the yield on 10-year notes up about 6 basis points to 4.85% as of 11:16 a.m. in New York.

The market reaction shows how some investors had expected an even-larger operation. Guneet Dhingra, BNP Paribas SA's head of US rates strategy, said before the announcement it would take a maximum size of $7 billion to surprise the market, with anything less triggering selling pressure.

How successful the enlarged program will prove remains to be seen. Yields dropped after the initial announcement of the plan last month, but retraced the move. Benchmark 10-year yields last week hit their highest since 2023.

Markets in August, when 30-year yields hit their highest since 2007, were driven by concerns "the US is not going to be able to pay its debt. It was absurd, but it just became kind of the dominant narrative," Bessent claimed in a Texas event. He has separately characterized buybacks as aimed at boosting liquidity. They will enable banks and other institutions to offload harder-to-trade securities so that they can then boost their participation in auctions of new debt, he said last week.

"Scott has absolutely adopted a very activist model as Treasury secretary," Krishna Guha, head of economics at Evercore ISI, said before Wednesday's announcement. "He's tactically very skilled in terms of when and how to surprise and move markets and has had some near-term success."