The recent storm in debt markets, which has seen long-dated yields surge to their highest levels in decades, clearly jarred the Treasury enough to prompt the action.
Will the retreat in yields last? Buybacks don't change the amount of debt being raised but may shift the emphasis to raising more short-term funds - something analysts commonly refer to as "operation twist".
But with the total U.S. government debt pile topping $40 trillion for the first time this week, more than double the tally a decade ago, the need to continually roll over bills and short debt could face problems of its own.
The timing of the buyback announcement helped the latest 20-year Treasury auction proceed without much difficulty, although relatively hawkish minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest meeting suggest no relief in the cost of short-term debt servicing is coming any time soon.
One casualty of the Treasury's latest bond plan, however, was the dollar, which fell sharply across the board.
Meanwhile, the Canadian dollar was a big winner on Wednesday as details emerged of a potential trade deal with the U.S. to avert Washington's planned tariff increase. The deadline has been pushed back to Saturday.
Elsewhere, the bond bounce helped stocks steady too. The standout share move on Wednesday was a near-trebling of pharma firm Moderna's stock price after it revealed a breakthrough with Merck in developing vaccines for skin cancer - a potential game changer in all cancer treatments going forward.
With that, onto today's column.
