INTEREST RATES

Morning Brew Inc.

Thirty years seems like a long way away. It’s not, in the world of fixed income.

The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond, a benchmark for long-term borrowing, closed higher than 5% for most of July. As of July 27, the US government security has traded above 5% for 30 days in 2026, the longest stretch since 2007, Bloomberg reported.

“Behind the sustained rise in long-dated yields is growing concern about a deteriorating fiscal picture, just as a deluge of issuance to fund artificial intelligence infrastructure is flooding the corporate debt market,” according to Bloomberg.

“We are definitely approaching the highest levels seen since before the [global financial crisis],” Dominic Pappalardo, chief multi-asset strategist at Morningstar Wealth, told CFO Brew.

That’s not great news for CFOs.

Higher long-term yields signal that investors want a larger return to cover the risk of lending money for long periods, Axios reported.

So as the 30-year yield rises, interest rates do too, Pappalardo said, directly impacting an organization’s “borrowing and financing costs.” Whenever the 30-year Treasury yield increases, the corporate borrowing rate typically climbs, he explained. “So CFOs have to pay more money to finance their company’s operations and investments.”

Rising Treasury yields could also crimp M&A activity.—LB

      

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TECH

Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty Images

When it comes to software, DIY might be the new “buy.”

Companies view vibe-coding as a way to reduce their reliance on traditional SaaS companies, EY research found. In the latest iteration of the Big Four firm’s US AI Pulse Survey, more than three-quarters (76%) of senior executives whose companies are investing in AI said that “off-the-shelf” software was insufficient for their needs. What’s more, 91% said that it’s “critical” for organizations to use AI to develop their own software. Almost as many (87%) either have programs in place to help employees build software with AI, or are piloting such programs.

The survey polled 534 US “decision-makers” (people with SVP roles or higher) from a wide range of industries between April 24 and May 17. Almost all (99%) came from organizations that have invested in AI, according to an EY representative.

In-house bumps. Vibe-coding is hardly frictionless. Nearly three-quarters (72%) of senior leaders said their organizations are “facing challenges” with AI-built tech. They cited a long list of potential problems associated with building software in-house, including the rise of shadow IT (34% said this was a barrier); concerns about regulation (33%) and cybersecurity (32%); and at 31% each, the higher initial cost involved, the lack of in-house talent, and the reliability and accuracy of AI. Only 8% said they experienced no barriers to developing their own software.

Rising token-based costs have companies rethinking their AI strategies.—CV

      

CYBERSECURITY

Credit: Patrick Fussell

As if having your data compromised, exfiltrated, and ransomed wasn’t bad enough, the price of handling a breach is rising, too.

IBM’s annual Cost of a Data Breach report saw an increase of 12% year over year in incident expense, due to what a company researcher described as a bigger “blast radius” per breach, higher remediation price tags, and AI-based automation that makes attacks cheap for cybercriminals and pricey for defenders.

Here are two standout stats from a report, which studied just over 600 companies that suffered a data compromise between March 2025 and February 2026:

• The global average breach reached a record $4.99 million. Main factors, according to the report, included “detection” and “lost business.”
• More than one in four organizations experienced an AI-generated malicious attack—a 56% YoY increase.

AI is powering a lot of what’s happening, an IBM X-Force exec tells IT Brew.—BH

      

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market forces

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top finance reads.

Stat. 6.66%. That’s the rate the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage reached last week, the highest level in a year. The increase came after the Federal Reserve voted on July 29 to keep interest rates unchanged.

Quote. “There are constituencies around the world who are having a very good crisis, and the oil producers are one of them.”—Patrick Galey, fossil fuels lead at nonprofit Global Witness, after Exxon Mobil and Chevron reported blowout quarters (Associated Press)

Read. Technology firms are returning to in-person job interviews to stop candidates from cheating and using AI. (Business Insider)

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