"Going into this year, the belief was that global easing was over and things were looking better for the entire world," said Jim Vogel, senior rates strategist at FHN Financial in Memphis.

“The key reason for Treasury to introduce the 20-year now is that it gives it a warm-up period,” said Jim Vogel of FHN Financial. “It will be absolutely necessary later on for larger auction sizes overall,” so cuts now would only be temporary.