10-Year Yield Hits 5-Year High

The long-term rate-indicative 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose to its highest point in five years Tuesday afternoon but then inched down slightly from its day-end close above 5.25% to about 5.22% as of noon on Wednesday, according to Yahoo! Finance/Associated Press.Rates have been rising considerably above their previous trading range, which had been well below 5%. In the past week, 10-year rates have moved 29 basis points higher and mortgage-backed securities "have underperformed their [U.S. Treasury] hedge by 63 bp since month-end," according to a Wednesday morning report by RBS Greenwich Capital MBS researcher Alec Crawford.