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(Bloomberg) -- US government debt held onto slight gains after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that plans for deregulation were gaining momentum.

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The advance on Friday pushed yields down by one to two basis points across maturities after Bessent said on Bloomberg Television’s Wall Street Week with David Westin that an easing of bank capital rules on Treasuries could happen this summer. He also said the US could strike several large trade deals in the next couple of weeks and downplayed the risks tied to debt dynamics.

Friday’s move caps a week in which long-dated yields globally soared on investor concern about widening fiscal deficits in the US and abroad. The 30-year yield is trading near 5.03%, compared to the 4.9% seen before Moody’s Ratings stripped the US of its last top credit score a week ago.

Bessent downplayed deficit forecasts that he said failed to incorporate the possibility of stronger economic growth and tariff income, and earlier this week called the Moody’s action “a lagging indicator” of fiscal health.

Whether he succeeds in calming the bond market, however, “will come down to the fundamentals of demand and supply for long-end Treasuries – which is an open question — and the economic outlook,” Priya Misra, portfolio manager at JPMorgan Asset Management, said on Bloomberg Television.

Earlier in the day, Treasuries had gained on President Donald Trump’s threats of a sweeping 50% tariff on the European Union and a 25% levy on Apple Inc. if the tech giant fails to move iPhone manufacturing to the US.

But much of the move had petered out by the time Bessent spoke. He said regulators were “very close” to altering the supplementary leverage ratio, a rule that’s been a constraint on banks’ trading in the $29 trillion Treasuries market.

Reforming the regulation — which was temporarily suspended during the post-Covid period to ease market turmoil — is viewed as likely to bolster demand for Treasuries, especially relative to interest-rate swaps, and improve liquidity in the market. Treasuries outperformed similar-maturity swap contracts Friday after Bessent’s comment.

“The SLR reforms are incrementally going to improve Treasury demand by banks,” Ed Al-Hussainy, rates strategist at Columbia Threadneedle, said in response to Bessent’s SLR comment. “But banks are unlikely to be the marginal buyer of Treasuries when auction sizes go up to finance the deficits.”