Stocks Rise as Treasury Steps In to Support Bonds: Markets Wrap
(Bloomberg) — Wall Street staged a rebound after the Treasury said it plans to boost buybacks of longer-dated bonds, a signal the US wants to lower borrowing costs after yields hit multi-decade highs.
A rally in 30-year bonds drove yields down by nine basis points to 5.19%. That’s ahead of a $16 billion auction of 20-year maturities. Most shares in the S&P 500 rose, but chipmakers declined anew. The dollar fell. Oil fluctuated as traders weighed renewed tensions in the Middle East that further clouded the outlook for flows through the Strait of Hormuz.
Just two weeks after releasing its planned schedule for buybacks this quarter, the Treasury said it’s “increasing, by at least double, the size of liquidity support buyback operations” for securities dated from the 10-year to the 30-year sector.
“Long-end Treasuries are rallying after the US Treasury is taking another step to stem the rise in long rates,” said Peter Boockvar, author of The Boock Report. “I’m assuming this supply will be replaced by more issuance on the shorter end, particularly bills.”
Boockvar also noted that this is not a debt paydown, it is just a rearrangement of the maturity schedule of Treasuries.
Later Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will release minutes of its late-July meeting — at which policymakers voted 9-3 to keep rates unchanged. The summary may offer investors a better sense of the degree to which officials were losing patience with high inflation.
The July minutes will likely highlight broad hawkish sentiment on the committee, according to Anna Wong at Bloomberg Economics.
“Even so, negative data surprises since then reinforce our view that the Fed won’t be hiking in September,” she said.
Corporate Highlights:
Marvell Technology Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google announced an expanded chip-development partnership, including a warrant from Marvell allowing the search giant to buy as much as $12.2 billion in shares. A personalized vaccine developed by Moderna Inc. and Merck & Co. helped reduce the recurrence of melanoma in a large, late-stage trial, raising expectations for a potential life-extending treatment for an insidious form of cancer. Target Corp. lifted its full-year guidance after results outpaced estimates in the latest quarter, suggesting the big-box retailer may be moving past a lengthy sales slump. Lowe’s Cos. cut its outlook for the full year after posting results that missed Wall Street estimates, showing how a stubbornly weak housing market is eroding the home-improvement retailer’s performance. Estée Lauder Cos.’s results beat estimates and ended a run of three straight declines in annual revenue, a sign the beauty conglomerate’s turnaround efforts are gaining momentum. SK Hynix Inc. unveiled plans to buy back 40 trillion won ($29 billion) of shares and return more profits to investors, moving to stabilize its shares after they fell more than 50% in two months. Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
The S&P 500 rose 0.4% as of 10 a.m. New York time The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.3% The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5% The Stoxx Europe 600 was little changed The MSCI World Index rose 0.3% Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index fell 1.8% Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.7% The euro rose 0.7% to $1.1658 The British pound rose 0.7% to $1.3621 The Japanese yen rose 0.7% to 158.42 per dollar Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin rose 0.6% to $64,947.22 Ether rose 1% to $1,930.8 Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined six basis points to 4.64% Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at 3.25% Britain’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to 5.04% Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.6% to $85.48 a barrel Spot gold rose 2.9% to $4,461.56 an ounce ©2026 Bloomberg L.P.
