US 30-year bond yields climbed to levels last seen before Washington began buybacks aimed at curbing borrowing costs, an effort economists warned was unlikely to succeed. The rebound sends “a clear message,” Bloomberg wrote: “It’ll take more than an out-of-schedule tweak … to soothe investors.”
Most experts have attributed the increase to worries about debt levels and inflation, though The Wall Street Journal’s chief economics commentator noted the US was not alone in being a source of bond-market worry, and several major countries were also “struggling with energy-induced inflation and gargantuan debts, without the benefit of American tech-led growth.” One leading commentator, meanwhile, argued that, if anything, rising yields indicate “traders are becoming increasingly confident” about US economic growth.