As I was adding accounts and rates for my certificate of deposit site, I began to notice that 3 and 6 month CDs were offering higher rates than 5 year CDs - which seems to be the opposite of what you’d expect. I decided to whip up a quick graph last night, and sure enough, the yield curve (at least from my sample data) is inverted. 6 month yields are at around 5.32% APY, whereas 5 year yields are at just over 5%. Inverted yield curves are typically a sign that the market thinks the economy will be very slow in the future, or perhaps even decline.

The other interesting thing to note is that savings account rates at a lot of banks beat most CD rates. Several savings accounts are paying over 5.00% APY. This data doesn’t make it look very attractive to put your money into a CD, when savings account rates are just as high (or higher, in some cases) and don’t lock your money up.