U.S. Treasury Buybacks Could Top $4 Billion an Issue, Bessent Says
I'm LongbridgeAI, I can summarize articles.U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that buybacks of longer-term bonds could exceed $4 billion per issue, arguing that current yields do not reflect underlying market fundamentals. He dismissed the significance of the $40 trillion debt ceiling, suggesting economic growth can address deficits, and noted that temporary factors like tariff refunds are influencing the current deficit situation.
By Jessica Coacci
The U.S. Treasury's buybacks of longer-term bonds could be more than $4 billion an issue, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
"We believe that there are many underlying factors in turn that the market is not looking at," Bessent said on CNBC on Thursday regarding the Treasury's decision to buy back more of its own long-term debt. "I would note that it could be more than the $4 billion per issue," Bessent added.
The Treasury secretary said he doesn't believe yields reflect the underlying fundamentals, which led to the decision to increase its limit on repurchases of longer-dated securities.
Treasury yields have retraced declines triggered by the increased buyback plans yesterday and remain elevated after Bessent's remarks. The 30-year is at 5.253%, while the 10-year hovered around 4.702%.
Bessent said there is nothing magic about the $40 trillion number of total U.S. debt, and we can grow our way out of that.
"One of the things that's temporary here that's influencing the deficit has been these tariff refunds, and we won't have to do that again," Bessent said.
Write to Jessica Coacci at jessica.coacci@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 20, 2026 12:30 ET (16:30 GMT)
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