Federal Reserve Economic Data

When you see headlines about 'Treasury yields rising' or 'mortgage rates climbing,' this is the data behind it. The 10-year yield is what big investors will accept to loan money to the U.S. government for 10 years. When it goes up, borrowing gets more expensive everywhere. When it drops, it usually means people are nervous about the economy. This daily record goes back to 1962, so you can see how rates have moved through recessions, booms, and everything in between.

When the government borrows money for 10 years, it usually pays a higher interest rate than when it borrows for just 2 years. That difference is called the spread. Most of the time this spread is positive, which is normal. But occasionally it flips negative, meaning short-term borrowing costs more than long-term. When that happens, recessions tend to follow within a year or so. This dataset shows that spread going back to 1976, updated every trading day.

When you lend money for longer periods, you typically expect to earn more interest. This data shows the difference between what the government pays for 10-year loans versus 3-month loans. Most of the time, that difference is positive (you get paid more for longer loans). But sometimes it flips negative, which happens when investors panic about the economy and rush to lock in longer-term rates. Every time the spread went negative in the past 60+ years, a recession followed within a year or two. It's like a canary in the coal mine for the economy.

The price you see at the gas pump doesn't come out of thin air. Oil trades on global markets, and WTI is one of the main prices that gets quoted. This dataset shows what a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude actually sold for each day since 1986. It's useful if you want to understand why gas prices go up or down, or if you're studying how energy costs affect the broader economy.

Want to know if the dollar is strong or weak right now? This tracks it daily. When the number goes up, the dollar is worth more relative to other currencies. When it goes down, the dollar is weakening. It matters because a stronger dollar makes American goods more expensive for people buying from abroad, which can hurt U.S. exporters. A weaker dollar makes our stuff cheaper overseas, which helps exporters but makes imports pricier at home. This index has been tracked since 2006, so you can see long-term trends in dollar strength.

When people say 'the stock market is up 2% today,' they're usually talking about the S&P 500. This data shows what those 500 large companies were worth each trading day, going back nearly a century. If you wanted to know whether stocks were more expensive in 2010 than 2020, or track how your retirement account should have performed, this index tells you. It's basically a scoreboard for how American big business is doing.