French 10-Year Bond Yield Rises Above US Treasuries for the First Time Since 2013

France's 10-year government bond yield rose above the 10-year US Treasury yield on Thursday morning, October 22, 2026, for the first time since 2013. The French yield reached 5.084% at its high, a new 24-year peak. At 07:50 GMT Reuters had it at 5.0788%, up 8.5 basis points on the day, against 5.0815% for Treasuries, which were down 6.4 basis points. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point, so the two yields were almost level and France crossed only at its high.

The cross came from both directions. French yields kept climbing as investors sold French debt over the 2027 budget, while US Treasury yields fell the same morning. France also paid 167.8 basis points more than Germany on 10-year debt, the widest gap since 2011, according to Reuters. The headline reached the MoveSurge news feed at 07:51:45 UTC.

How the French yield got here

1. October 16: the extra yield on French 10-year debt over German Bunds, known as the OAT-Bund spread, stood at 137.4 basis points.
2. October 17-18: protests against living costs turned into riots in several French cities. We covered the market reaction on Monday, October 19, when the French 10-year yield rose to 4.86% and the spread widened to 143.5 basis points.
3. October 21: the French yield touched 5.002% at 09:14 GMT, its first move to 5% since July 2002 on Reuters data, and closed the day around 5.01%. The spread reached about 157 basis points.
4. October 22: the yield hit 5.084% and passed the US 10-year, and the spread widened to 167.8 basis points.

Why investors are selling French bonds

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu runs a minority government that is trying to pass the 2027 budget, and the revenue part of the bill returns to the National Assembly on October 27. On October 21, Finance Minister Roland Lescure said on RTL radio that the government would bypass parliament again if it had to, either through Article 49.3 of the constitution or by government ordinance. Moody's is due to review France's Aa3 credit rating, which already carries a negative outlook, after the European close on Friday, October 23. A general strike called for November 5 is going ahead.

France now pays more to borrow than countries that were at the center of the euro debt crisis. FXStreet put the French 10-year about 43 basis points above Italy's and about 64 basis points above Greece's, which traded at 4.40%. Higher oil prices also weighed on Paris stocks on Thursday, AFP reported, and have fed a wider selloff in government bonds this month.

The euro barely moved

The selling stayed in French bonds. In MoveSurge's one-minute data the euro traded at $1.12345 when the headline crossed. It was at $1.12356 ten minutes later, up 0.01%, and at $1.12329 after fifteen minutes, down 0.01%. French stocks took more of the hit: the CAC 40 was down 1.16% at 7,827.92 around 10:00 Paris time, after a 1.06% gain on Wednesday, and luxury group Hermès fell more than 8% after its own results, AFP reported. A European bank index was down 2.0%, according to FXStreet.

The pattern matches October 19, when French bonds and stocks fell after the riots and the euro recovered each dip. It differs from October 5, when budget worries pushed the euro to a 17-month low against the dollar.