Reading Financial Data - Step by Step / Economic indicators
The yield curve and the 10-year minus 2-year spread
A yield spread compares two interest rates by subtracting one from the other.
Concept
T10Y2Y is the 10-year Treasury yield minus the 2-year Treasury yield, measured in percentage points.
Worked Example: Read the published spread
- The 10-year yield page shows 4.49% as of 2026-06-17.
- The 2-year yield page shows 4.20% as of 2026-06-17.
- The direct spread series T10Y2Y shows 0.27 percentage points as of 2026-06-18.
- When this spread is negative, people often call it an inversion: the 2-year yield is higher than the 10-year yield.
- An inversion is a widely watched recession signal, but this lesson is only reading the series, not making a forecast.
- Using the direct spread series avoids mixing observations from different dates.