Gold jumps 3% as US Treasury expands bond buybacks

By Mucahithan Avcioglu

ISTANBUL (AA) - Gold prices extended their gains Wednesday as US Treasury yields fell sharply after the Treasury Department announced plans to increase its buybacks of longer-term government debt.

Gold rose 3% to around $4,460 per ounce as of 1330GMT. Silver gained 3.3% to $65.40.

The Treasury Department said it plans to at least double the size of its buyback operations for longer-term notes and bonds, triggering a rally in the US government bond market.

The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond fell toward 5.2% after reaching 5.34% on Tuesday, its highest since 2007. The 10-year yield also declined after approaching its highest since early 2025.

The Treasury Department stressed that the expanded operations were intended to support market liquidity and were not designed to “mitigate episodes of acute market stress.”

The maximum size of individual repurchase operations for securities with maturities of between 10 and 30 years is expected to rise from $2 billion to at least $4 billion under the plan.

Lower bond yields generally support gold by reducing the opportunity cost of holding non-interest-bearing bullion.

The decline of the US dollar also supported precious metals. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of major currencies, fell around 0.7% to 98.86.

Investors are also awaiting minutes from the US Federal Reserve’s July meeting for signals about policymakers’ inflation assessment and the future path of interest rates.