US 10-year Treasury yield breaches 5% as global bond sell-off deepens

BREAKING: US 10-year Treasury yield breaches 5% for the first time since 2007, touching 5.011% as a global bond sell-off deepens ahead of the Fed's rate decision.

The US ten year Treasury yield just broke five percent. First time since 2007.

It touched 5.011 percent overnight as a global bond sell off deepened, and you can see what trading desks are staring at right now, screens full of red and everyone repricing everything at once. The ten year is the rate the whole world borrows against. Mortgages, corporate debt, government budgets, all of it gets more expensive from here.

And the timing could hardly be worse, because this lands right before the Fed's rate decision. Markets dumping bonds days before the central bank speaks is not a vote of confidence, it's a message. Investors are demanding more to hold American debt, and Washington is running deficits that need a lot of buyers.

The last time we saw five percent, the iPhone had just launched and the financial crisis hadn't happened yet. Worth remembering what came next.

This is Liu Yang, reporting for HIT.