The US Treasury is about to sell $70 billion in 5-year notes, and the price tag for borrowing keeps climbing. In the when-issued market, where traders place bets ahead of the actual auction, the 5-year yield sits at 4.391%. That’s just a whisker below July’s auction high of 4.408%.
The auction is scheduled for August 26.
A year of rising yields in five-year notes
The trend line for 5-year Treasury yields in 2026 has been pointing steadily upward. In March, the auction cleared at 3.980%. By June, that number had climbed to 4.200%. July pushed it further to 4.408%.
That’s roughly a 40-basis-point increase over five months. 5-year yields have traded in a range between 3.6% and 4.4% throughout the year, meaning the current level is pressing against the upper boundary of that band.
