Bessent bond plan details to be revealed as Treasury secretary warns FX traders he’s ‘the house now’

PUBLISHED WED, SEP 9 20268:25 AM EDTUPDATED

Jeff Cox

@JEFF.COX.7528

KEY POINTS

• The Treasury Department on Wednesday will announce the size of a buyback operation it is slated to begin on long-dated U.S. debt.

• While a prior announcement indicated the total would be at least $4 billion, analysts see the potential for the number to climb significantly higher.

• “I’m the house now,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned currency traders this week.

Markets are set to find out Wednesday just how aggressive the Treasury Department’s bond-buying program will get,as Secretary Scott Bessent dared currency traders to challenge him.. KEK!!!!

The department is expected to announce around 11 a.m. ET the size of a buyback operation it unveiled Aug. 19, an aggressive move and part of a broader strategy to keep a lid on Treasury yields and ensure markets function as intended.

“I am the house now,” Bessent said Tuesday at Southern Methodist University, referring more specifically to his department’s parallel maneuver to support the Japanese yen. “And you can bet against me if you want.”

In the case of the yen, Treasury stepped in to buy the currency so that the Bank of Japan wouldn’t sell its Treasurys. At $1.1 trillion, Japan is the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt, so a move to sell Treasurys likely would boost yields at a time when the domestic debt has soared past the $40 trillion mark and the deficit is headed past $2 trillion.

On the home front, Bessent announced last month that Treasury would buy back at least $4 billion of already-issued long debt, focusing specifically around 10- and 20-year notes. That is double the normal size of the buyback operations, and speculation is growing that the $4 billion level is a floor, not a ceiling.

“The size of the increase in bond-sector repurchases remains highly uncertain – and the odds of a larger increase are rising,” analysts at Wrightson ICAP said in a note earlier this week. “Something in the $5 billion to $6 billion range now seems likely to be the starting point for the discussion, and we cannot rule out something larger.”

Bessent’s comments represent an even starker warning to markets than previous remarks, though the actual impact has been unclear.

The benchmark 10-year yield

has risen about 10 basis points, or 0.1 percentage point, since the buyback announcement. Moreover, the 30-year bond yield has edged higher as well, though it has remained below the 5.3% level that BMO Capital Markets analyst Ian Lyngen said is a “proverbial line in the sand that was effectively established by Bessent.”

The secretary’s staunch position, though, has rattled some investors as heavy handed and potentially damaging to a market considered the deepest and most liquid in the world.

“Such a backdrop represents a departure from the Treasury’s history of being predictable and gradual to change course, although it appears to be the undeniable direction of Bessent’s leadership,” wrote Lyngen, BMO’s head of rates strategy. “Our concern is that it will have negative consequences for the credibility of Treasuries as an asset class.”

An announced buyback of $6 billion would be “fairly aggressive,” according to the Wrightson analysts. Going beyond that to tripling or quadrupling the normal level would be an “extreme case” that would “result in a much more visible deceleration in the net supply trajectory.”

While the buyback level will be announced Wednesday, the actual operation won’t happen until Thursday. Markets will be watching both the offered amount as well as the demand from debt holders.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/09/bessent-bond-plan-details-to-be-revealed-as-treasury-secretary-warns-fx-traders-hes-the-house-now.html

European leaders trying to ‘buy time’ for Kiev with ceasefire calls – Lavrov

Russia will not accept as a neighbor a nation ruled by a “Russophobic and aggressive neo-Nazi regime,” the top diplomat has said

Published 9 Sep, 2026

European leaders calling for a ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine conflictare seeking to preserve the government in Kiev in its current aggressive anti-Russian form, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

Even politicians who acknowledge that Kiev cannot militarily retake the former Ukrainian regionsthat have joined Russia since 2014 and now advocate a truce are pursuing an agenda that threatens Russia and its citizens, the top diplomat said. Speaking in an interview on Tuesday, Lavrov named Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as examples.

The proposed ceasefire “is also just a way to buy time, as everyone knows,” Lavrov said, adding that Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky “makes no secret of that” as he seeks additional weapons supplies.

According to the Russian minister, the goal of this ploy is to preserve and keep in power “the regime currently ruling in Kiev,”whose defining traits he described as “Nazism, aggressive Russophobia, violations of human rights, language rights and religious freedom.”

As for Europe, it wants to preserve that openly Russophobic and aggressive neo-Nazi regime. It is the European plan. I don’t see how the Russian people can accept this outcome.

Moscow’s objections to freezing the conflict remain unchanged, as does its opposition to proposals to deploy troops from NATO member states in Ukraine following a potential peace deal, Lavrov said.

“Any people in military uniforms and any military facilities will be legitimate [targets] for us,and no scenario under which Ukraine will acquire NATO membership in all but name is acceptable to us,” he stressed.

Lavrov was interviewed in Moscow by Russian-American television host Dimitri Simes and visiting US political commentator Andrew Napolitano, better known as Judge Napolitano, after his former role on the New Jersey Superior Court.

https://www.rt.com/russia/645347-lavrov-ukraine-ceasefire-west/

Kiev wants advance Patriot shipments against unbought missiles

Western nations would send interceptors now and replenish stockpiles with 1,000 units the EU will buy for Ukraine later, Kiev says

Published 9 Sep, 2026 10:10

Ukraine wants its Western donors to supply highly sought-after Patriot interceptors from their own stockpiles, which would be replenished later with 1,000 missiles that Kiev plans to purchase with EU money.

The unorthodox proposal was outlined on Tuesday by Ukrainian Defense Minister Evgeny Khmara during a video call with Western arms donors. It comes amid a global shortage of US-made weapons, with Ukraine competing for supplies against numerous other countries while arguing that its need to intercept Russian ballistic missiles should take priority.

Ukrainian leader VladimirZelensky previously sought to secure 300 Patriot interceptors for the upcoming winter. His reported effort to impress US President Donald Trump with long-range strikes on Russian refineries and e-commerce warehouses has produced no clear results.

The attacks were allegedly intended to persuade Trump to approve additional Patriot supplies.Kiev also overspent Western donor funds while pursuing the strategy and has a $27 billion military budget deficit.

Speaking to members of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, Khmara said his country is contracting 1,000 Patriot missiles “through the EU loan,” but acknowledged that the purchase does not resolve the immediate shortage.

“The majority of these missiles will only start to be shipped in the coming years, which is why we ask that you supply us the missiles from your stockpiles today in exchange for future improved missiles from our contracts,” he said.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said at the same meeting that Berlin is working to provide additional Patriot interceptors of the older PAC-2 model from its own stocks, along with air-to-air missiles that Ukraine uses against Russian drones and cruise missiles, including from Western-donated F-16 fighter jets.

Western Europe’s purse remains open for Kiev

The meeting, co-chaired by Pistorius and British Defense Secretary Wes Streeting, coincided with announcements from both the EU and the UK regarding their respective aid programs.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced thedisbursement of €3.2 billion ($3.7 billion) under the Ukraine Support Loan mechanism, saying the funds “will enable Ukraine to better protect its skies.”

The British government pledged a £100 million ($136 million) “winter air defense package,” with the money slated to be spent on US-made weapons through NATO’s Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) program.

Trump’s mediation efforts renewed

Trump has sought to distance the US from the Ukraine conflict, arguing that European NATO members should bear more of the burden of the prolonged hostilities with Russia.Last week, his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visited Moscow and Kiev as part of an effort to revive US-mediated peace talks.

The latest US proposal contains “worse” terms for Ukraine than those previously on the table, according to Ukrainian MP Anna Skorokhod. Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska in August 2025 to discuss a possible off-ramp in the conflict, but Zelensky rejected key terms sought by Moscow.

In June, Zelensky announced a 40-day “pressure campaign” involving an escalation of long-range attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure and trade. Moscow retaliated with strikes that left Ukrainian ports effectively cut off from maritime routes.

https://www.rt.com/russia/645344-ukraine-patriot-supplies-credit/

Putin and Trump hold phone talks – Kremlin

The call comes after US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visited Moscow and Kiev in a renewed effort to resolve the Ukraine conflict

Published 8 Sep, 2026 14:27 | Updated

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, have held a “positive” phone call focused on efforts to resolve the Ukraine conflict, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said on Tuesday.

The call followed a new round of shuttle diplomacy by Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who met Putin in Moscow for more than three hours on Saturday before traveling to Kiev for talks with Vladimir Zelensky the following day.

Speaking to reporters, Ushakov said Putin and Trump had both assessed the envoys’ visits positively and agreed that work through this and other diplomatic channels would “continue.”

Ushakov described the hour-long conversation as positive, saying Putin praised US mediation efforts and Trump personally. Trump, he added, expressed hope for a breakthrough in resolving the conflict during his presidency.

Trump told Putin that ending the Ukraine conflict would open the way to fully restoring Russia-US relations and that renewed trade ties would bring both countries “enormous benefits,” Ushakov said. Putin welcomed the prospect of “a constructive partnership between two great powers,” he added.

Putin also said that Moscow has no hostile intentions toward European countries, according to Ushakov. Summarizing the president’s remarks, the aide added: “The myths being spread about a Russian threat serve as a pretext for Europeans to increase their support for Ukraine and their own military spending.”

Putin also briefed Trump on the fighting, including Moscow’s prospects for further battlefield advances and achieving its military objectives, Ushakov said.

The aide added that Putin acknowledged Melania Trump’s efforts to reunite Russian and Ukrainian children with their families.

“The presidents agreed to stay in touch and will call each other whenever necessary,”Ushakov said.

https://www.rt.com/russia/645264-putin-trump-talks-kremlin/

I know this was posted before.