When the 5-Year Treasury Note's yield is up 10%, Which note exactly do they refer to?

Question

The 5-year Treasury notes, for example, are issued multiple times during the year, everyone have its cusip number, when they say this note yield is up by 10%. Do they refer to the most recently auctioned note only? and so this will affect the price of the lastest note only?

Answer 1

Do they refer to the most recently auctioned note only?

Yes - the most recently issued bonds are called "on-the-run" and are typically used to quote current yields. Bonds issued before the most recent auction are called "off-the-run" and are still traded but are not as liquid as on-the-run.

and so this will affect the price of the latest note only?

Yield is calculted from the prices that the bond trades at, not the other way around. Yield does not "affect" price - is it another way of interpreting "price".

Answer 2

You have to dig into the story to get the details. The headline or the opening sentences will generally not tell you.

I found this headline from [October 15th 2021]:

Treasury yields gain after retail sales increase in September

It stories 2nd paragraph said

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note climbed by 5.3 basis points to 1.572% at 4:10 p.m. ET. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond added 2 basis points, rising to 2.045%. Yields move inversely to prices and 1 basis point is equal to 0.01%.

The story then links to a chart showing how the prices had changed. The chart included the table:

KEY STATS

Yield Open 1.52%          Yield Day High 1.579%      Yield Day Low 1.518%
Yield Prev Close 1.519%   Price 97.0625              Price Change -0.4844
Price Change % -0.50%     Price Prev Close 97.5469   Price Day High 97.5625  
Price Day Low 97.0156     Coupon 1.125%              Maturity 2031-08-15

That quoted maturity date gives the answer for this story.