Traders Eye Survey for Hints Treasury Will Cut Auction Sizes -- WSJ

By Jack Pitcher

Investors will be scrutinizing the Treasury department's routine survey of bond dealers, due at noon today, for questions that hint at potentially smaller government debt auctions going forward.

The Treasury department could make changes to auction sizes when it announces its borrowing plans on Nov. 4, or at least signal future changes further down the road. But the survey of dealers could itself provide hints of what could come at that announcement.

"With long-end yields touching multi-decade highs and Bessent's increasing attempts at market intervention, any further lever they can pull to try to get long-end yields down is likely on the table," analysts at RBC Capital Markets wrote to clients on Friday.

Smaller auctions would mark a departure from Wall Street's expectations over the past year that the Treasury will need to sell more long-term debt to finance the budget deficit. But "today's refunding survey release may be one of Treasury's last chances to 'jawbone' yields lower before midterms," the RBC analysts wrote.

This item is part of a Wall Street Journal live coverage event. The full stream can be found by searching P/WSJL (WSJ Live Coverage).

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 16, 2026 11:22 ET (15:22 GMT)