Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on Aug 18, 2026 in New York City. (Photo: AFP/Michael M. Santiago)
21 Aug 2026 05:41AM
NEW YORK: Yields on longterm US Treasury bonds rose Thursday (Aug 20) despite a fresh pledge from US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to potentially intervene further in a bid to lower borrowing costs.All three major US indices fell decisively, following a down day on leading European bourses. Oil prices jumped more than two per cent as the US-Iran back-and-forth over the Strait of Hormuz remained stalemated.The US Treasury Department had announced on Wednesday plans to "at least double" its sovereign bond buybacks after the 30-year yield surged Tuesday to near two-decade highs.While the announcement had pushed rates lower on Wednesday, yields ticked higher again Thursday in a sign that analysts said showed scepticism that the plan would succeed. In a mid-morning interview on Thursday, Bessent told CNBC that the Treasury has a "big toolkit" to address a rise in yields that it views as unmoored to financial conditions. Such measures could include increased bond purchases beyond the scale announced the day prior."We think that this is a thinly traded area of the market, that we're in August, and there's been a lot of corporate issuance that's influenced the market," Bessent said. "We believe that the yields don't reflect the underlying fundamentals."Bessent told the network that concerns about inflation would ease once the United States gets "on the other side" of the Iran war and oil prices retreat.The yield on the 30-year US Treasury bond bounced to 5.24 per cent, above the 5.19 per cent on Wednesday, but lower than the 5.33 peak on Tuesday.Thursday's increase in yields reflects the market's view that the bond purchases "are more bandaids for deeper problems going on in the economy," said Arun Sundaram, senior vice president at CFRA Research.
