10-Year Treasury Yield

This tracks the 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Rate — the yield on U.S. government debt maturing in 10 years, as published daily by the U.S. Treasury based on trading in the secondary market for existing Treasury securities.

The 10-year yield is one of the most closely watched figures in global finance because it serves as the reference point for a huge range of other borrowing costs: most U.S. mortgage rates are priced off it, as are many corporate bond yields and other long-term lending rates. Because Treasury bond prices and yields move inversely — rising prices push yields down, and falling prices push yields up — a rising 10-year yield generally means investors are selling Treasury bonds, not directly "raising rates" the way a Fed decision does.

Unlike the Federal Reserve's overnight policy rate, which the Fed sets directly, the 10-year yield is set by market participants trading actual Treasury securities, and reflects the market's collective expectations for economic growth, inflation, and Fed policy over the coming decade — a rising 10-year yield can reflect either optimism about growth or concern about inflation, and distinguishing between the two is a routine exercise for bond-market analysts. It's also widely watched as a signal of recession risk when it inverts relative to shorter-term Treasury yields, historically one of the more reliable (though imperfect) recession indicators.

New 10-year notes are issued through periodic Treasury auctions, where the yield is set by investor demand at auction rather than announced by the government — strong demand pushes the auction yield down, weak demand pushes it up. Once issued, notes continue trading in the secondary market for their full term, and it's that secondary-market trading that produces the continuously updated yield shown on a quote page, not the original auction rate.

Because U.S. Treasuries are widely regarded as one of the safest assets in the world, the 10-year yield also serves as the effective "risk-free rate" used as a baseline in a huge range of financial calculations, from discounting future corporate cash flows in valuation models to pricing other government and corporate debt globally. It's held in size by foreign central banks and sovereign wealth funds as a reserve asset, and tends to attract heavy safe-haven buying — pushing yields down — during periods of acute global financial stress, even when that stress originates outside the United States.