The Treasury sold $39 billion of 10-year notes on Wednesday, September 9, 2026 at a high yield of 4.834 percent, the highest stop at a 10-year note auction since August 2007. The sale was a reopening of the note maturing August 15, 2036, which carries a 4.625 percent coupon, so buyers paid $98.361116 per $100 of face value. Treasury published the competitive results at 1:03 p.m. Eastern. Bidders submitted $105.8 billion for the $39 billion on offer, a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.71 that was itself the strongest at a 10-year sale since June 2019. The last auction to clear above this level was on August 8, 2007, when a 10-year note stopped at 4.855 percent. Yields at that height change the arithmetic of federal borrowing and of every consumer loan priced off the long end of the curve. For background on why this one maturity matters so much, see our explainer on the 10-year Treasury yield and our live Treasury yield curve.
Key Takeaways
- Treasury’s $39 billion 10-year note reopening stopped at 4.834 percent on September 9, 2026.
- That is the highest 10-year auction yield since August 8, 2007, a span of 19 years.
- Bidders tendered $105.8 billion, a 2.71 bid-to-cover ratio and the strongest since June 2019.
- Primary dealers were left with 4.31 percent of the competitive award, the second-smallest share since 2008.
- The average rate on all interest-bearing federal debt was 3.490 percent in August 2026.
What Happened at Wednesday’s 10-Year Note Sale
Treasury announced the sale on September 3 and auctioned it as a reopening, meaning the notes carry the same 4.625 percent coupon and the same August 15, 2036 maturity as the original issue sold in August. Because market yields have risen since then, investors bought at a discount. The accepted price of $98.361116 per $100 raised roughly $38.36 billion in proceeds on $39 billion of face value, plus about $151.9 million of accrued interest for the period since the August 15 dated date. Total tenders reached $105,812,590,000 against $39,000,040,000 accepted. Bidders who came in at exactly the 4.834 percent stop received 89.25 percent of what they asked for.
The stop came in 15.1 basis points above the August 12 sale, which cleared at 4.683 percent, and 25.4 basis points above the July 8 reopening at 4.580 percent. Treasury’s own par yield curve put the 10-year at 4.83 percent at the close on September 9, up from 4.80 percent the previous session and 4.77 percent on September 3. In other words the auction did not force yields higher. It printed on top of a market that had already moved, which is the outcome the Treasury borrowing desk wants. The median accepted yield was 4.769 percent, 6.5 basis points inside the stop, a spread consistent with the last several reopenings rather than a sign of a struggling sale.
Who Bought the Notes, and Who Did Not Have To
Indirect bidders, the category that captures foreign central banks, sovereign funds and other buyers who bid through a dealer, took $30.804 billion, or 79.18 percent of the $38.902 billion awarded on a competitive basis. Direct bidders, mostly domestic asset managers bidding in their own name, took $6.421 billion, or 16.51 percent. That left primary dealers with $1.677 billion, just 4.31 percent of the competitive award. Dealers are obliged to bid at every auction and absorb whatever the rest of the market declines to buy, so their share is the cleanest read on demand available in the results. Anything in single digits signals a sale that cleared without help.
Treasury has published this bidder breakdown for 10-year notes since May 2008. Across the 220 auctions in that record, only one left dealers with a smaller share than Wednesday’s 4.31 percent, and that was the September 10, 2025 sale at 4.21 percent. The indirect share of 79.18 percent ranks fifth over the same span, behind April 2025, September 2025, July 2026 and February 2023. Foreign and institutional appetite for 10-year paper has not weakened as the yield climbed. If anything the pattern of the past year suggests the opposite, with the largest indirect shares on record clustering in the period since spring 2025. Our page on who owns US debt tracks the holder composition behind those numbers.
Why 4.834 Percent Is a Nineteen-Year Marker
Treasury’s auction query system holds 355 10-year note auctions going back to October 31, 1979. Sorting them by high yield puts Wednesday’s 4.834 percent above every sale since August 8, 2007, when a 10-year note stopped at 4.855 percent. The intervening period covers the financial crisis, two rounds of quantitative easing, the pandemic and the 2022 tightening cycle. The secondary market briefly went higher than this during the October 2023 selloff, when the 10-year constant maturity yield reached 4.98 percent on October 19, but no auction in that window cleared above 4.834 percent, and no trading day since October 31, 2023 has closed at or above 4.80 percent until this week.
The cost side follows directly. Total public debt outstanding was $40,084,090,785,446.35 on September 8, 2026, and Treasury’s monthly average interest rate table put the rate on all interest-bearing debt at 3.490 percent in August, up from 3.447 percent in July. Notes specifically averaged 3.345 percent. Every note that matures and is replaced at 4.834 percent therefore reprices roughly 149 basis points higher. On this single $39 billion sale that gap is worth about $581 million a year relative to the existing note average, and the stated coupon alone commits the government to about $1.80 billion of annual interest for a decade. Our tracker of interest on the national debt and the running US debt counter follow that arithmetic month by month.
What a 4.83 Percent Ten-Year Means for Your Money
The 10-year note is the reference rate for most fixed consumer borrowing. Freddie Mac’s 30-year fixed mortgage average was 6.71 percent in the week ended September 3, when the 10-year closed at 4.77 percent, a spread of 194 basis points. If that spread holds and the 10-year settles near this week’s 4.83 percent, the mortgage average drifts toward 6.77 percent. Auto loans, student refinancing and fixed home equity products move on the same signal with a lag of a few weeks. Track the current levels on our current mortgage rates page.
Savers see the other side of it. Bank deposit pricing keys off short-term policy rather than the 10-year, and the effective federal funds rate was 3.63 percent on September 8, so the two-year note at 4.43 percent and the 10-year at 4.83 percent now sit well above what most transaction accounts pay. The gap between the 10-year and the 2-year was 0.40 percentage points on September 9, a modestly positive slope that rewards locking money up for longer. Compare terms on CD rates and high yield savings accounts before rolling a maturing certificate. Variable-rate debt is unaffected by any of this, because card APRs are priced off the prime rate, which has been 6.75 percent for 273 days.
Pro Tip
If you are shopping for a mortgage, watch the 10-year note rather than the federal funds rate. Lenders reprice off the 10-year, and Treasury posts a closing par yield every business day at roughly 3:30 p.m. Eastern. A 15 basis point move in the note, the size of Wednesday’s shift from the August auction, is worth about $40 a month on a $400,000 30-year loan. Locking a rate on a day the note falls is worth more than timing an FOMC meeting.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the 10-year Treasury yield today?
The 10-year Treasury yield closed at 4.83 percent on September 9, 2026, according to Treasury’s daily par yield curve, and the 10-year note auction held that afternoon stopped at 4.834 percent. Both figures are the highest since 2023 in the secondary market and since August 2007 at auction.
Why is the 10-year Treasury going up today?
The 10-year rose from 4.77 percent on September 3 to 4.83 percent on September 9 ahead of two events. The August Consumer Price Index is released on Friday, September 11, and the Federal Open Market Committee meets on September 15 and 16 with a fresh Summary of Economic Projections. Investors are also absorbing $119 billion of coupon supply this week across the 3-year note, the 10-year note and Thursday’s 30-year bond. Heavier supply and an unresolved inflation print both push yields up.
Is the 10-year Treasury yield expected to drop?
No forecast is reliable, and the honest answer is that the September 11 inflation report will do more to set direction than any projection published before it. What the auction data shows is that buyers were willing to commit $105.8 billion of bids at these levels, which is a vote that 4.83 percent compensates for ten years of inflation risk. A softer than expected CPI print would pull yields down; a firmer one, or a hawkish set of FOMC projections on September 16, would not.
What are the current yields on US Treasury bonds?
Treasury’s par yield curve for September 9, 2026 shows the 2-year note at 4.43 percent, the 10-year note at 4.83 percent and the 30-year bond at 5.28 percent. At the short end, the 13-week bill auctioned September 8 at a 3.800 percent discount rate and the 26-week bill at 3.890 percent. Treasury posts the full curve every business day after the close.
How does the 10-year Treasury yield affect my mortgage rate?
Lenders price 30-year fixed mortgages at a spread over the 10-year note, because most loans are prepaid or refinanced long before thirty years and their effective life resembles a ten-year bond. That spread was 194 basis points in the week ended September 3, with the mortgage average at 6.71 percent against a 4.77 percent note. When the note moves, mortgage quotes usually follow within days. The federal funds rate has almost no direct effect on the 30-year fixed.
Can I buy Treasury notes at auction myself?
Yes. Individuals bid noncompetitively through TreasuryDirect or a brokerage, which means you accept whatever yield the auction sets rather than naming your own. Noncompetitive bids are always filled in full up to $10 million per auction. Retail investors took $37.8 million of Wednesday’s sale, and noncompetitive tenders totaled $98.2 million. The minimum purchase is $100, and the note pays interest twice a year until it matures on August 15, 2036.
Watching Today’s 30-Year Bond Sale
Treasury completes the September refunding cycle at 1 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, September 10, with a $22 billion reopening of the 30-year bond, and the August inflation report lands the next morning. If dealers are left with a single-digit share again at the long end, the message from the 10-year sale holds. Follow the calendar on our Fed meeting schedule, the policy path at Fed rate forecast 2026, and the mechanics at how Treasury auctions work.
References
- U.S. Department of the Treasury, Competitive Results, 10-Year Note Reopening, CUSIP 91282CRF0, September 9, 2026.
- U.S. Department of the Treasury, Auction Announcements, Data and Results, accessed September 10, 2026.
- U.S. Department of the Treasury, Daily Treasury Par Yield Curve Rates, September 2026.
- Bureau of the Fiscal Service, Average Interest Rates on U.S. Treasury Securities, August 2026.
- Bureau of the Fiscal Service, Debt to the Penny, September 8, 2026.
- Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Rate (DGS10).
- Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Bank Prime Loan Rate (DPRIME).
- Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 30-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage Average (MORTGAGE30US).
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, FOMC Meeting Calendars, 2026.
