US Treasury to double long-term debt repurchases
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Wednesday 19 Aug 2026
(Sharecast News) - The US Treasury announced on Wednesday that it will double the size of its long-term government debt repurchases.
It said in a brief statement that it was increasing "by at least double" the size of liquidity support buyback operations for bonds maturing in the 10- to 20-year and the 20- to 30-year ranges. The current maximum size of $2bn per operation will be at least $4bn per operation.
The change will take effect from 9 September and stay in place for the remainder of this refunding quarter, to 4 November.
"This increase in buyback operation sizes reflects Treasury's desire to provide greater liquidity support in longer-dated nominal sectors where there is consistent strong sponsorship from market participants, as evidenced by the significant volume of high-quality offers Treasury routinely receives in longer-dated buyback operations," the Treasury said.
Neil Wilson, UK investor strategist at Saxo Markets, said: "This is probably more about the signal the administration wants to send to the market than the size of the operation - it's small potatoes versus the $40tn US government debt."
Wilson said this is "a very strong sign" the Treasury has decided higher US yields are unacceptable, "and that the recent blowout in the long end is undesirable and needs counteracting by means other than a) raising short-term rates to re-anchor expectations or b) reining in fiscal drift".
He added: "It resembles Operation Twist by seeking to support the long end and improve liquidity, which could put more pressure on the USD if the market interprets this as meaning easier financial conditions because it allows the Fed to avoid a monetary policy response and implies official support for the Treasury market; or in essence fiscal dominance."
Bond yields sank following the announcement, while US stock futures rallied.
"The abrupt move lower in yields delivered a big boost to US equity markets, which had come under pressure from the rumble towards multi-year/decade highs for sovereign yields," Wilson noted.
Stephen Innes at Quintex Intel said: "This is not QE, and it is not the Fed cutting rates. Treasury is buying older securities to improve market liquidity rather than attempting to engineer a broad easing of financial conditions. But for traders, the distinction only gets you so far when the intervention arrives directly after long yields hit multi-decade highs."
Special promo:
Trading the Forex Market? Visit FXmania.com to get advanced infomation about currencies and the Foreign Exchange
Market.
Email this article to a friend
or share it with one of these popular networks:
You are here: news
10 Lower Thames St,
London EC3R 6EN