U.S. Treasury scales back Treasury bill issuance for second straight week to preserve ability to raise debt

The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday cut the size of some of its benchmark Treasury bill tenders for the second week in a row, seeking to preserve its ability to raise debt under the statutory debt ceiling. The Treasury said it plans to issue $85bn of four-cycle Treasury bills on Thursday, a $5bn reduction in the size of the previous Treasury issue of the same maturity. Treasury also announced it will issue $80 billion of 8-cycle Treasury bills on Thursday, also $5 billion smaller. The size of Wednesday's routine 17-cycle Treasury bill tender was revised down to $60 billion, a $2 billion reduction. This is the second time the Treasury has scaled back its Treasury bill issuance in order to preserve its ability to raise debt under the statutory debt ceiling, and will likely be one in a series of scaled-back offerings.