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The 10-year yield climbed to 4.841%, its highest since November 2023, as Wall Street had anticipated a larger buyback operation
Scott Bessent, US treasury secretary, during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images).
The Treasury Department announced Wednesday that it will buy back up to $6 billion of longer-dated government debt, tripling the normal size of its buyback operation — but the move drove yields higher rather than lower, as markets had priced in an even larger intervention.
The 10-year Treasury yield touched 4.841%, a level last seen before Nov. 1, 2023, the day it peaked at 4.935%. The 30-year bond yield rose 5 basis points to 5.307%, breaching the 5.3% threshold that bond markets had watched closely. A basis point represents one-hundredth of a percentage point, and bond prices move in the opposite direction from yields.
