As part of its regular survey ahead of the quarterly refunding announcements, the US Treasury Department is asking major banks whether the government should buy back government bonds to improve the market liquidity, Reuters reported on Friday. 

"The Treasury is also querying whether reduced volatility in the issuance of Treasury bills as a result of buybacks made for cash and maturity management purposes could be a meaningful benefit for Treasury or investors," Reuters further noted.

Market reaction

Safe-haven flows continue to dominate the financial markets in the last session ahead of the weekend. As of writing, the S&P 500 Index was down 1.9% on a daily basis at 3,600 points.