Bessent tapping Treasury's rainy-day fund for buybacks isn't a 'bazooka' to get markets to move his way

By Greg Robb and Joy Wiltermuth

No material impact on long-dated yields from this, analyst says

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has been trying to calm markets by buying back bonds.

Reports that the Treasury Department could use its general account to buy back more of its longer-term government notes and bonds may be temporarily calming markets. But it's not as extreme of an intervention as Mario Draghi's "whatever it takes" pledge to preserve the euro or Ben Bernanke's bazooka program in response to the collapse of Lehman Brothers, experts say.

Instead, even with the news that the agency may tap its general account, the buyback program remains relatively small, leaving analysts to question why Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent chose this moment to redouble his Treasury's efforts to calm markets.