Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The major averages are off their best levels of the session, but still remain modestly higher.

Meanwhile, U.S. Treasuries trade a bit below their morning highs that were reached after the U.S. Treasury announced that it has increased the maximum size of buybacks of longer tenors. The long bond was the main beneficiary of the announcement, with its yield down nearly ten basis points for the day, while shorter tenors have turned negative after giving back their slim early gains. Treasuries have held at their early-afternoon levels in immediate reaction to today's $16 billion 20-year bond sale, which met soft demand. The auction drew a high yield of 5.204%, which tailed the when-issued yield by half of a basis point while the bid-to-cover ratio (2.53x vs 2.64x average) and indirect takedown (62.9% vs 64.9% average) were below average.