What Happens to Financial Stress Index (StL) When the Yield Curve Inverts?
What happens to stocks, bonds, and the economy when the yield curve inverts? A historically reliable recession signal explained with live data.
How Financial Stress Index (StL) Responds
Scenario Background
The yield curve inverts when short-term Treasury yields exceed long-term yields, specifically when the 2-year yield rises above the 10-year yield. Under normal conditions, investors demand higher yields for lending money over longer periods to compensate for inflation risk and uncertainty. When this relationship flips, it signals that bond markets expect economic weakness ahead, anticipating that the Federal Reserve will need to cut rates in the future.
Read full scenario analysis →Historical Context
The 10Y-2Y spread has inverted before every US recession since 1970, with only one false signal in the mid-1960s. Before the 2008 Financial Crisis, the curve inverted in late 2005 and stayed inverted through 2007,the recession began December 2007, roughly two years after the initial inversion. Before the 2020 recession, the curve briefly inverted in August 2019, about seven months before the COVID-triggered downturn. The 2022-2024 inversion was the longest and deepest since the early 1980s, with...
What to Watch For
- •Re-steepening of the curve after prolonged inversion (the "bull steepener")
- •Fed pivot from rate hikes to rate cuts
- •Rising unemployment claims alongside an inverted curve
- •Widening credit spreads confirming the recession signal
- •ISM Manufacturing falling below 50
Other Assets When the Yield Curve Inverts
Other Scenarios Affecting Financial Stress Index (StL)
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