US Treasury is 'picky' about US debt buybacks, rarely not buying up to the limit.

BlockBeats news, September 11 — In US Treasury Secretary Bessent's first expanded Treasury buyback operation, the amount of long-dated Treasuries purchased was lower than investors expected, exacerbating the selloff and pushing US long-term bond yields to multi-year highs.

The US Treasury on Thursday bought back $5.187 billion of 10- to 20-year Treasuries, below the previously announced maximum buyback size of $6 billion. The 10-year US Treasury yield rose to its highest level since 2023 after the operation. Investors submitted a total of $10.5 billion in bond sale offers to the Treasury during the operation. Although the Treasury is not obligated to purchase the maximum amount, this was the third time among 53 long-bond buyback operations since the program was relaunched in 2024 that it chose not to buy the full maximum amount.

TD Securities strategist Molly Brooks said, "This suggests the Treasury is being more selective than usual. If the Treasury wants to meet market expectations and complete the full buyback amount to push down long-end rates, it may need to accept less attractive pricing in future buyback operations. At the very least, the precedent that the Treasury would buy back 100% of the maximum amount has been broken, which may help redistribute market expectations."