August 22, 2026
The Buyback That Didn’t Work
Bessent’s bond market intervention produced a one-day relief rally, then promptly reversed.
SEPTEMBER 16: Massive “SpaceX Royalty” Payout
Despite becoming the richest man in the world…
Elon Musk’s companies have NEVER paid a single dividend. And they probably never will.
But, according to Marc Lichtenfeld, America’s #1 Income Investor…
There’s a backdoor – a loophole – that allows investors to collect cash payouts using a special class of shares he calls “SpaceX Royalty Shares.”
And this year, they’re set to pay out $3.6 billion.
The next payout goes out September 16.
Analyst Context
- The 30-year Treasury yield closed at 5.273% on August 21, up more than 3 basis points on the day and back above pre-intervention levels.
- Nearest technical resistance sits at approximately 5.276%; a sustained close above that level opens the path toward the cycle high of 5.33% printed on August 18, the highest reading since June 2007.
- The 10-year yield has settled around 4.70%, close to its highest level since early 2025, complicating the rate outlook for mortgages, auto loans, and corporate credit.
- CME FedWatch shows roughly a 60% probability of a rate hold at the September FOMC meeting, with the first cut now expected no earlier than late 2026 or 2027.
Opening: Forty-Eight Hours That Said Everything
On the morning of Wednesday, August 19, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the government would at least double the size of its long-end bond buyback operations, lifting per-operation purchases from $2 billion to at least $4 billion starting September 9. The 30-year yield dropped nearly 10 basis points within hours. Stock futures surged. Relief spread across trading desks.
By Thursday it was gone. Yields reversed sharply, with the 30-year climbing back to 5.26% and the 10-year reaching 4.71% — close to its highest level since early 2025. The reversal indicated that investors remained skeptical that the expanded buyback program would provide lasting relief for elevated borrowing costs.
The episode compressed a months-long debate into 48 hours: can Treasury intervention suppress yields when the underlying fiscal conditions are deteriorating in real time? The answer the market delivered was unambiguous.
What Treasury Actually Did
The buyback program is not new. Treasury has run liquidity-support repurchases for some time, targeting older, less liquid segments of the curve. What changed on August 19 was scale and urgency.
Under the accelerated program, Treasury targeted the 10-to-20-year and 20-to-30-year portions of the market, which has seen a buyers’ strike since late June. The government would
