New Delhi, July 30 -- WASHINGTON - Bond traders who started Tuesday watching the Federal Reserve vote to hold its benchmark rate unchanged ended the day parsing a quieter signal from the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue. The United States Treasury bought back $2 billion of long-dated government bonds - securities that in some cases carry maturities stretching to July 2056 - executing the operation through the Federal Reserve Bank of New York while most of Washington's attention was fixed on the central bank.

That combination matters. The Fed controls short-term borrowing costs and has declined to cut. The Treasury controls neither the policy rate nor long-term yields directly, but its debt management choices shape the supply and demand ...