2s10s spread
The difference between the 10-year and 2-year Treasury yields, the most watched slope measure of the yield curve.
The 2s10s spread is the 10-year Treasury yield minus the 2-year yield, measured in basis points. A positive value means the curve slopes up over that segment; a negative value means it is inverted. It is one of several curve measures, alongside the spread between three-month and ten-year yields.
On our site, 2s10s is shown as a time series with the zero line marked. The level matters, but so does the direction of change; a move from negative back to positive is often watched closely.
Traders care because the spread is a standard summary of the market's view of policy and growth. It has been followed for decades as a recession signal, though its timing is loose.
Worked example (illustrative numbers, not real data): the two-year yield is 4.10 percent and the ten-year is 4.45 percent, so the spread is 35 basis points. If the two-year rises to 4.60 percent with the ten-year unchanged, the spread falls to negative 15 basis points and the curve inverts.