Treasury buybacks drag yields lower; gold, miners rally
The Treasury’s decision to at least double long-dated debt buybacks pushed benchmark yields lower, weakened the dollar to its lowest since late May and lifted gold-related assets.
S. equities clawed back Tuesday’s tech-led slump by midday Wednesday as the Treasury’s decision to double its long-dated debt buybacks pulled benchmark yields off 20-month highs and knocked the dollar to its weakest level since late May. The reflation impulse ripped through hard assets. Gold — tracked by th SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD ) — jumped toward $4,500 an ounce.
50, both at two-month highs. Bond Market Intervention Is Session’s Organizing Event The Treasury said it would at least double the size of its liquidity-support buyback operations covering securities maturing in 10 to 30 years, lifting the maximum to $4 billion through Nov. 4, after 30-year yields recently touched their highest since 2007. 75% on Tuesday.
19% ahead of a $16 billion 20-year auction. 19%, steepening the curve’s front end against a flattening long end. The dollar index slid to 99, the lowest since late May. 8% against the greenback.
That was enough to spark a rotation rather than a straight rally: money moved out of the crowded AI hardware trade and into rate-sensitive, dollar-sensitive and defensive assets. 4% to 53,563. 8% to 3,043 as lower long-end yields lifted domestic cyclicals. Crude extended a three-day advance despite a bearish inventory print.
42, near three-week highs. m. 75% last month with three dissents. m.
6%. 4%. 2%. 8%.
8% advance, its strength concentrated in a single stunning headline. Moderna Inc. 52, the stock’s best day ever, after the biotech company and Merck & Co. Inc.
(NYSE: MRK ) said their personalized mRNA cancer vaccine intismeran autogene, combined with Keytruda, met both its primary endpoint of reducing melanoma recurrence and its secondary endpoint on distant metastasis in a Phase 3 trial of more than 1,100 post-surgical patients. It is the first positive late-stage readout for an mRNA cancer vaccine, and the partners said regulatory discussions would begin within months. 69, the stock’s best day since March 2009. 3%.
4%. 3%. S. 6% on the yield retreat.
Two names bucked the semiconductor tape. Marvell Technology Inc. 89, and Analog Devices Inc. 31 estimate and issuing strong guidance.
Wednesday’s Stock Movers Tempus AI Inc. 73 after agreeing to acquire Personalis Inc. 25 per share, pushing Tempus into the roughly $20 billion minimal residual disease cancer-testing market. The gold complex supplied the next tier of gainers.
Coeur Mining Inc. 0%, Newmont Corp. 5%, and Royal Gold Inc. 9%.
The dollar’s slide did the same work for crypto proxies. Strategy Inc. 64 alongside a Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) rally toward $66,000. The Estee Lauder Companies Inc.
54 billion consensus, and adjusted earnings of 39 cents per share, double the year-ago figure. The decliners were almost entirely an AI hardware story. Vicor Corp. 59 as investors took profits on a 21% single-session rally in the prior session.
Keysight Technologies Inc. (NYSE: KEYS ) extended its post-earnings slide. TTM Technologies Inc. 61 and MACOM Technology Solutions Holdings Inc.
89, both sliding on a continued de-risking across the AI supply chain. Retail results were the session’s other soft spot. The TJX Companies Inc.