August 20, 2026

Yields on U.S. Treasury bonds fell yesterday after the Treasury announced an expansion of its long-term debt buyback program

International

The US Treasury yield curve compressed yesterday after the Treasury announced an expansion of its debt repurchase programs for longer-term bonds (10-20 years and 20-30 years), increasing from $2 billion to a minimum of $4 billion per transaction between September 9 and November 4. The stated objective was to bolster liquidity in this segment of the curve. In this context, the 10-year Treasury yield fell to 4.64% from 4.71%, the 3-year yield dropped to 4.23% from 4.25%, and the 1-year yield remained virtually unchanged at 3.96%. Also yesterday, the minutes from the Federal Reserve's (Fed) July meeting were released, revealing that three members—Beth Hammack, Neel Kashkari, and Lorie Logan—voted against a 25-basis-point rate hike. In the document, the committee described inflation risks as "skewed to the upside."

Meanwhile, the main U.S. stock indexes rebounded yesterday after the previous session's decline. The S&P 500 rose 0.2%, the Nasdaq gained 0.2%, and the Dow Jones climbed 0.2%. Year-to-date, the indexes have accumulated gains of 12.6%, 13.3%, and 11.2%, respectively.

On the macroeconomic front, the final Consumer Price Index (CPI) figure for the Eurozone for July was released yesterday, confirming the preliminary reading published at the end of last month: year-on-year inflation reached 2.9%, in line with consensus expectations and above June's 2.8%. Core inflation (which excludes energy, food, alcohol, and tobacco) rose to 2.5% year-on-year, also in line with forecasts, from 2.4% the previous month. On a monthly basis, the overall index increased by 0.2%.

Finally, commodities mostly moved higher yesterday. Gold stood out with a jump of 4.3%, reaching USD 4,522.20 per ounce, while soybeans advanced 1.7% to USD 448.60 per ton. Meanwhile, the price of WTI crude gained +0.9%, closing at USD 85.70, while Brent crude rose +0.5% to USD 91.47.

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