US government’s 30-year Treasury auction sees record foreign demand

The US Treasury just sold $22 billion in 30-year bonds, and the world showed up to buy them. Foreign and international investors grabbed 79.5% of the offering, the second-highest share ever recorded for this maturity. Primary dealers, who typically absorb whatever’s left over, were stuck with just 2.21% of the allocation. That’s the lowest dealer take on record. The numbers behind the blowout The auction priced at a high yield of 5.308%, the loftiest level for a 30-year bond sale since August 2001. Yet despite the elevated yield, buyers were so eager that the bonds priced 2.7 basis points below where they were trading in the when-issued market at 5.335%. That gap, known as a stop-through, was the second-largest ever recorded for this bond tenor. The bid-to-cover ratio hit 2.612, meaning for every dollar of bonds available, bidders offered roughly $2.61. It was the strongest reading since February 2026. This marked the fifth consecutive 30-year auction to price above a 5% yield. Why foreign buyers are piling in The indirect bidder share of 79.5% is the headline number. Indirect bidders are the Treasury Department’s proxy for foreign central banks, sovereign wealth funds, and interna...