US Treasuries fell during Wednesday's US trading session, pressured by elevated oil prices, heavy corporate bond issuance, and disappointment over the expanded scale of the Treasury's buyback targets. Just after 3 pm in New York, yields pulled back from their intraday highs, though intermediate maturities still ended up to 5 basis points higher, pushing the 2s5s30s butterfly spread about 3.5 basis points wider on the day.
The 10-year Treasury yield settled around 4.83%, having briefly traded above last week's high during the morning session. Much of the daily decline came after the Treasury released its buyback schedule. The announcement confirmed that Thursday's buyback operation for 10- to 20-year maturities would be raised to a maximum of $6 billion, triple the previous amount. Under the new buyback framework, the operation for 20- to 30-year Treasuries would also be at least doubled to a minimum of $4 billion.
Treasuries were already under pressure during the early US session as oil prices continued to climb. Brent crude topped $101 per barrel for the first time since July, with escalating attacks in the Middle East fueling concerns about potential disruptions to energy supplies. Late in the session, WTI futures were still up roughly 3.6% on the day.
A wave of new supply also added upward pressure on Treasury yields. A total of 16 issuers brought $22.75 billion of corporate debt to market during the day. Meanwhile, the $39 billion auction of 10-year Treasuries saw strong demand, with the high yield coming in 1.5 basis points below the when-issued yield. Primary dealers took down just 4.3% of the auction, one of the lowest allotments on record, while indirect bidders absorbed 79.25% and direct bidders took 16.5%.
As of 4:34 pm Eastern Time, the 2-year yield was up 3.6 basis points at 4.4295%, the 5-year yield rose 5.7 basis points to 4.6199%, the 10-year yield gained 5.5 basis points to 4.8427%, and the 30-year yield climbed 4.9 basis points to 5.2942%. The 5s30s spread narrowed about 0.8 basis points to 67.26 basis points, while the 2s10s spread widened roughly 1.9 basis points to 41.1 basis points.