Treasury Yields Drop After Reported Plan to Use $1 Trillion General Account for Bond Purchases

Treasury yields were lower on Monday after CNBC reported, citing two Treasury officials, that the department could use its $1 trillion General Account to fund its plans to ramp up government bond purchases. The 10-year Treasury note yield was last down more than 3 basis points to 4.704%. The 30-year yield, which last week hit levels not seen since 2007, lost more than 4 basis points to 5.234%. One basis point equals 0.01%, or 1/100th of 1%, and yields and prices move inversely to one another. The officials did not say how much of the TGA would be used, however.

Monday's report comes after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unveiled an extended debt buyback program aimed at easing pressure on the long-end of the yield curve. Yields initially fell before rebounding higher. Central bankers and economists will gather at the annual Jackson Hole Symposium this week, with traders looking ahead to Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh's keynote address, due on Friday, as sustained inflation pressures and the U.S.'s $40 trillion debt loom over the event.

"The Treasury's intervention in the bond market raises the importance of Warsh's Jackson Hole comments as the real problem was that as yields rose, the dollar dropped, which is abnormal, This relates back to AI because now the AI spend is increasingly dependent on debt," said Richard Reyle, chief investment officer at Questar Capital Partners. "Interest rates may be the single most important thing in our economy right now." Warsh's speech will follow a raft of fresh economic data releases this week, including July core PCE price index — the Fed's preferred inflation gauge — and the second quarter GDP estimate.