CD Rates Firm;
12-Month Hits 2.853%

CD rates firmed across nearly the whole curve this week, with seven of the eight tracked terms rising and only the 3-month slipping, its second straight decline. The benchmark 12-month climbed to 2.853%, another high for this run, and its premium over the 5-year widened to 0.116 points, the largest inversion of the summer. The middle of the curve produced the week’s quirk: the 18-month and 36-month landed in an exact tie at 2.661%. All of it arrives on the eve of the Federal Reserve’s meeting this week, with markets widely expecting the fifth straight hold.

📊 Full 8-term CD data: 12,810 institution-term combinations tracked across all 50 states.

NATIONAL: National CD APYs rose almost everywhere the week ending July 27, 2026, a broad and gentle firming that lifted seven of the eight tracked terms. 12-month CD rates, the benchmark, added 0.006 points to 2.853%, a third consecutive high for this run, while the 36-month posted the week’s largest gain, up 0.016 points to 2.661%, pulling into an exact tie with the 18-month. The 3-month was the lone decliner, easing 0.014 points to 1.914%, its second straight slip. The cross-term average rose to 2.609% from 2.602%.

The benchmark keeps grinding higher. The 12-month’s 0.006-point gain to 2.853% extends a sequence of run highs, 2.840 in early July, 2.847 last week, 2.853 now, and because 60-month CD rates barely moved, up 0.002 points to 2.737%, the gap between the one-year and the five-year widened to 0.116 points, the deepest inversion of the summer. The curve’s central fact keeps sharpening: the market pays its best rate at exactly one year and charges savers a growing penalty for locking longer.

The belly firmed and produced a photo finish. The 36-month’s week-leading 0.016-point rise recovered its early-July dip entirely and pulled it level with the 18-month, which itself added 0.009 points; both now print 2.661%, an exact tie that leaves fifth place shared until one of them blinks. Above them, 24-month CD rates rose 0.007 points to 2.714%, consolidating the third-place spot they took from the 6-month last week, while the 6-month recovered some ground, up 0.014 points to 2.688%, and the 48-month added 0.011 points to 2.641%. Last week’s reshuffle, in other words, held: no term changed places this week.

The 3-month stayed the odd term out. Its 0.014-point decline to 1.914% was smaller than its two-week slide but pointed the same way, and it remains the only term below 2% by a wide margin. A quick word on what these numbers are: they are national averages, drawn from rates collected directly off institution websites, and what any one saver can get depends on where they bank and how far they shop. Someone comparing Washington CD rates, for instance, can line up the strongest in-state and online offers against this national picture and see where the gap is worth chasing.

The timing of this week’s firming is the interesting part. The Federal Reserve meets this week, on July 28 and 29, its first gathering since the June 17 hold that kept the federal funds rate at 3.50% to 3.75% for a fourth straight meeting, the first under new Chair Kevin Warsh, and dropped rate cuts from the 2026 projections entirely. Markets widely expect a fifth hold, and this report goes to press before the committee speaks. But deposit pricing has already been voting: a near-uniform upward drift across the curve, a benchmark setting run highs three reports running, and a deepening premium for the one-year over every longer term all describe banks positioning for a Fed whose risk, by its own projections, tilts toward a hike rather than a cut. If Wednesday delivers the expected hold, this board likely keeps grinding sideways-to-up; a surprise in either direction would show up here within a week or two.

For savers, the playbook going into the meeting is unchanged and unusually clear. The one-year at 2.853% remains the best rate on the board, its lead is the widest of the summer, and the firming belly means the terms just behind it, the 24-month at 2.714% and the tied pair at 2.661%, cost less yield than they did a month ago for the extra commitment. Spreading a balance across those maturities hedges both of Wednesday’s outcomes: the locked rungs protect against the Fed eventually easing, while the shorter rungs free up money to reprice if the hawks win. A CD ladder calculator makes quick work of structuring it, and term-by-term history lives on the national CD rate trends page.