The Treasury Department will auction $213 billion of government notes across the four business days that bracket the Federal Reserve’s October 28 interest rate decision, according to the offering announcements Treasury released on Thursday, October 22. The calendar sets a $69 billion 2-year note on Monday, October 26, a $70 billion 5-year note on Tuesday, October 27, a $30 billion 2-year floating rate note on Wednesday, October 28, and a $44 billion 7-year note on Thursday, October 29. All four settle together on Monday, November 2. The Federal Open Market Committee meets on October 27 and 28, so the floating rate note prices on the same afternoon the Committee publishes its policy statement, and the 7-year note prices the morning after. Treasury left every one of those offering sizes unchanged from its September cycle. The sequencing matters because the government is selling medium-term paper into a market that still does not know whether the Fed intends a second increase this year. The current prime rate has held at 7.00% since the September hike, and the Fed meeting schedule lists October 28 as the next decision date.
- Treasury will sell $213 billion of notes in four auctions from Monday, October 26 through Thursday, October 29.
- The $30 billion 2-year floating rate note prices on October 28, the day the FOMC releases its decision.
- All four offering sizes match September at $69 billion, $70 billion, $30 billion and $44 billion.
- September’s 5-year note cleared at 5.033%, while the 5-year constant maturity yield was 4.78% on October 22.
- The prime rate has stood at 7.00% since the Fed’s September 16 quarter point increase.
What Treasury Announced and What Each Note Costs
Treasury published the four offering announcements on Thursday, October 22, covering CUSIPs 91282CRU7 for the 2-year note, 91282CRT0 for the 5-year, 91282CRS2 for the 2-year floating rate note and 91282CRV5 for the 7-year. Stripping out the floater, the fixed-rate portion comes to $183 billion. The same announcement day carried $326 billion of bills, including a $95 billion 13-week bill and an $82 billion 26-week bill for Monday, plus a $95 billion 6-week bill and a $54 billion 52-week bill for Tuesday. Treasury therefore put $539 billion of securities on the block in a single announcement round.
What the government pays depends on where yields settle at each auction. On October 22 the Fed’s H.15 release put the 2-year constant maturity yield at 4.65%, the 5-year at 4.78%, the 7-year at 4.86% and the 10-year at 4.96%. Each of those sits below where the comparable note cleared a month ago. September’s 2-year sold at a 4.787% high yield, the 5-year at 5.033% and the 7-year at 5.085%. Treasury is also replacing notes that mature on October 31, so part of the week’s proceeds rolls existing debt rather than raising fresh cash. The full curve is tracked on our Treasury yield curve page.
Four Sessions, One Settlement Date of November 2
Monday opens with the 2-year note at $69 billion, the largest single fixed-rate offering of the week after the 5-year. Tuesday brings the $70 billion 5-year note, which prices while the FOMC is in the first of its two days of deliberations. Wednesday carries only the $30 billion floating rate note, a reopening-style security whose coupon resets against the 13-week bill rate rather than against a fixed yield agreed at auction. Thursday closes the sequence with the $44 billion 7-year note. Every one of the four settles on Monday, November 2, which concentrates the cash movement into a single day at the start of the month.
The pattern repeats the September cycle almost exactly. Treasury announced that round on September 17 and auctioned the 2-year on September 22, the 5-year on September 23 and the 7-year on September 24, with settlement on September 30. Demand held up through that sequence. The 2-year drew a 2.63 bid-to-cover ratio, the 7-year 2.42 and the 5-year 2.21, the softest of the three. Holding sizes flat for a second month tells the market that Treasury sees no immediate need to lean harder on the 2-year through 7-year sector, where it has already shifted a large share of issuance toward bills.
Why the October 28 Vote Sits in the Middle of the Week
The FOMC raised its target range by a quarter point on September 16, to 3.75% to 4.00%, on a 12 to 0 vote. That was the first increase of the cycle, and it lifted the bank prime loan rate to 7.00%. The Committee reconvenes on October 27 and publishes its decision on October 28. The Fed’s own calendar shows no Summary of Economic Projections attached to this meeting, so the December 8 and 9 session is the next date carrying a fresh set of rate forecasts from the policymakers themselves.
Short-dated Treasury yields moved lower into the weekend ahead of the meeting. The 1-year constant maturity yield fell to 4.41% on October 22 from 4.52% a day earlier, and the 2-year dropped to 4.65% from 4.81%. The 10-year fell 17 basis points in that session, to 4.96% from 5.13%. The spread between the 10-year and the 2-year stood at 0.31 percentage points on October 23. Those moves cut the yield Treasury is likely to pay on Tuesday’s 5-year and Thursday’s 7-year relative to September, but they also reflect a market leaning away from an immediate second hike. Our Fed rate forecast page tracks how those expectations have shifted.
What Changes for Your Money
Auction results do not reach household borrowing costs directly, but the yields they set do. Fixed mortgage pricing tracks the 10-year Treasury far more closely than it tracks the Fed’s target range, so the 17 basis point drop in the 10-year on October 22 matters more for a 30-year loan quote than anything Treasury sells on Monday. You can compare live quotes on our current mortgage rates page. Deposit pricing runs off the short end instead. Banks set CD rates and high-yield savings yields against bills and the policy rate, which is why the $54 billion 52-week bill on Tuesday is a closer read on 1-year CD pricing than the 7-year note is.
Variable consumer debt moves on a different trigger. Credit card APRs and most home equity lines are priced as the prime rate plus a margin, so they change when the Fed changes its target range and not before. Prime has been 7.00% since September 16. A hold on October 28 leaves card and line-of-credit pricing where it is, while a second quarter point increase would add 25 basis points to both within a billing cycle or two. Fixed personal loan rates sit between the two, repriced on new applications rather than on existing balances.
If you are shopping a CD or a savings account this week, check the 52-week bill result Tuesday afternoon before you lock anything in. It is published within minutes of the 1:00 p.m. Eastern close and it tells you what the market will pay for 1-year government money the day before the Fed speaks. A bank offering a 1-year CD well under that bill yield is pricing in a cut it has not seen yet. Rate sheets on variable products will not move at all until the target range does.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much Treasury debt is being auctioned the week of October 26, 2026?
Treasury will sell $213 billion of notes in four auctions that week: a $69 billion 2-year note on October 26, a $70 billion 5-year note on October 27, a $30 billion 2-year floating rate note on October 28 and a $44 billion 7-year note on October 29. All four settle on November 2.
When does the Fed announce its October interest rate decision?
The Federal Open Market Committee meets on October 27 and 28 and releases its statement on the afternoon of October 28. The Fed’s published calendar attaches no Summary of Economic Projections to this meeting, so you will get the policy decision and the statement language but no refreshed dot plot. The next projection round comes with the December 8 and 9 meeting. Any change to the target range feeds into the prime rate the same day most large banks announce it.
Should I buy Treasury notes at auction or on the secondary market?
Noncompetitive bids at auction through TreasuryDirect fill at the high yield set by competitive bidders, with no commission and no markup, which is why small buyers often use them. The tradeoff is that you accept whatever yield the auction produces and you commit before you see it. Buying the same note later through a broker lets you see the price first, though you may pay a spread. For a single auction landing beside a Fed decision, the timing risk is the larger variable.
How often does the Treasury auction bills and notes?
Bills come weekly. The 13-week and 26-week bills are auctioned every Monday, the 6-week on Tuesday, the 17-week on Wednesday and the 4-week and 8-week on Thursday, with the 52-week bill running every four weeks. The 2-year, 5-year and 7-year notes are auctioned monthly, late in the month, and the 3-year, 10-year and 30-year run monthly in the second week. Treasury publishes the full tentative schedule months ahead and confirms each size in an offering announcement.
What does a 2-year floating rate note auction tell me about the Fed?
A floating rate note pays a coupon that resets weekly against the 13-week bill rate plus a fixed spread set at auction. Bidders compete on that spread rather than on an outright yield, so the result is a read on how much extra investors demand to hold paper whose income will follow the policy rate for two years. A tighter spread signals buyers are comfortable owning short-rate exposure. This one prices hours before the Committee publishes its statement.
Will the prime rate change after the October 28 meeting?
Prime moves only when the Fed moves its target range, and it has tracked the top of that range plus 3 percentage points for decades. The range is 3.75% to 4.00% and prime is 7.00%. If the Committee holds on October 28, prime stays at 7.00% and variable card and home equity pricing stays put. A quarter point increase would lift prime to 7.25%, and major banks typically post the change within a day of the announcement.
Watching the Week Ahead
Three results will say the most. Tuesday’s 5-year note shows whether buyers will take $70 billion of medium-term paper without a known policy outcome. Wednesday’s floating rate spread shows what they charge to ride the policy rate for two years. Thursday’s 7-year, priced after the statement, is the first auction of the cycle to carry a settled answer. Total federal debt stood at $40.444 trillion on October 22, up $272 billion since the fiscal year began. Track it on our US debt hub, the current national debt page and the interest on the national debt tracker.
References
- U.S. Department of the Treasury, Tentative Auction Schedule of U.S. Treasury Securities, accessed October 25, 2026.
- TreasuryDirect, announced securities, offering announcements dated October 22, 2026.
- TreasuryDirect, auction results for notes, September 2026 cycle.
- Federal Reserve Board, H.15 Selected Interest Rates, released October 23, 2026.
- Federal Reserve Board, FOMC meeting calendars, updated October 7, 2026.
- Federal Reserve Board, FOMC statement of September 16, 2026.
- Bureau of the Fiscal Service, Debt to the Penny, record date October 22, 2026.
- Bureau of the Fiscal Service, Average Interest Rates on U.S. Treasury Securities, record date September 30, 2026.
- Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, FRED series DGS10, DGS2 and DGS1, observations through October 23, 2026.
