If you’re looking for stock market data and statistics, there’s almost no limit to the number of websites that provide this information. But if you need bond market data, you have to do a little more digging. With that in mind, here are some of the best free resources on the web for current and historical bond market data:
Current yields on U.S. Treasuries
For up-to-date market data, an excellent resource is the bond market data center at Bloomberg.com.
Current yields on TIPS
The U.S. Treasury website shows the current yields for TIPS of various maturities.
Historical daily yields for U.S. Treasuries and TIPS
To get historical yields on government bonds that dates back to inception for TIPS and the early 1960s for Treasuries, among many other data series, the U.S. Federal Reserve website is a treasure trove of useful information.
Also, see historical yield charts for U.S. government bonds.
Quotes for Treasuries of all maturities
The Wall Street Journal offers this free page to the public that shows the prices and yields of every U.S. Treasury issue, not just the benchmark issue that represents each maturity as most sites do. This is also an excellent resources for those who want to learn about the relationship between prices and yields.
Size of the United States’ debt, updated daily
It’s not pretty, but up-to-fate information on the U.S. debt – together with historical data – is available via the calculator “U.S. debt to the penny” from TreasuryDirect.com.
Current duration of U.S. Treasuries by maturity
For the current yield, 52-week high and low yields, along with the durations and total returns for Treasury issues of varying maturities, see Treasury data center offered by the Wall Street Journal.
Historical data for the fed funds rate
If you want to see historical information on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s interest rate policies, Fed website is an excellent resource.
Bond market issuance, size, volume, and mutual fund flows
See the statistics page on the SIMFA website.
Returns and yields for key bond benchmarks
Learn what sectors of the bond market have provided the best recent and historical performance at this free resource from the Wall Street Journal.
Historic yield charts, investment grade corporate and high yield bonds
How competitive are yields today versus history? View the chart for corporate bonds here and high yield bonds here.
Historic yield spreads, investment grade corporate and high yield bonds
Corporate and high yield bonds are valued based on their yield advantage, or spread over U.S. Treasuries, so this number is critical for the market outlook.
Find our historical and current spreads for investment grade corporate bonds here and high yield bonds here.
Yields, developed and emerging market bonds by country
Barron’s tracks the yields on 27 countries, plus the J.P. Morgan Emerging Markets Bond-plus (EMBI+) Index and the J.P. Morgan Government Bond Index here.
Yield spreads on global government bond markets
Find out what global government bond markets are offering the best yields over U.S. Treasuries at the Financial Times website.
General economic data
Just about any piece of economic data an investor would need is available at the St. Louis Federal Reserve’s database, which goes by the acronym “FRED”.
The current and historical rate of inflation
One of the best resources in this area is inflationdata.com, which has information on current and historical inflation, as well as historical inflation calculators that allow users to calculate the changing purchasing power of the U.S. dollar.
Is there a website you use for bond investing that you don’t see listed here? E-mail me at bonds@aboutguide.com and I’ll add it to the list.
