Bloomberg.com – Bond Traders Suffer Worst Rout in Three Years as Selloff Deepens Yields reach multi-month highs in Germany, U.K., U.S. Corporate issuers undeterred, sell $62 billion of debt After all central bankers have done since the financial crisis to prop up bond prices, it didn’t take much for them to send the global debt market… Continue reading Rising Yields
<Click on graphic for larger image> The Financial Times – Investors pour $1.1bn into inflation-protected bond funds Inflow is largest since April 2015, according to EPFR A sell-off continued to reverberate across global sovereign debt markets on Friday, pushing yields on the debt higher at the end of a week when investors poured $1.1bn into inflation-protected… Continue reading Big Inflows Into TIPS Funds
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – After Hitting a 51-Year Low, the Homeownership Rate’s on the Rise The homeownership rate edges back up from a five-decade low amid tentative signs that renter families are starting to gain the confidence to buy homes. The nation’s homeownership rate, which has dropped sharply… Continue reading Has The Homeownership Rate Bottomed?
<Click on graphic for larger image> The Financial Times – Trading in JGBs at record low levels Two years ago today, the Bank of Japan unleashed its fabled monetary “bazooka” and boosted its asset purchase programme. Now, it’s running out of sellers. Since the BoJ’s ‘Halloween special’ of 2014, the central bank has been hoovering… Continue reading JGB Trading Is Nonexistent
<Click on chart for larger image> The Telegraph – Economic stress as world runs out of dollars Surging rates on dollar Libor contracts are rapidly tightening conditions across large parts of the global economy, incubating stress in the credit markets and ultimately threatening overvalued bourses. Three-month Libor rates – the benchmark cost of short-term borrowing… Continue reading LIBOR Concerns
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Rate Hike Fear Pushes High-Yield Bond ETF Over a Cliff Outflows from the iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond exchange-traded fund (HYG), the top ranked ETF by assets in the junk bond market, set a new record on Thursday—almost eclipsing the $1 billion mark. IShares’ high-grade corporate… Continue reading High Yield ETF Outflows Hit Record
<Click on graphic for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Banks Are Hoarding $2.4 Trillion of Bonds If the world’s biggest economy is really on the upswing, then why are America’s banks stockpiling a record amount of ultrasafe bonds? After all, jobs are back, the Federal Reserve is close to raising interest rates again and growth has… Continue reading The Effects Of Regulation
The Financial Times – The cost of the Fed’s scare story on commodities Usually physical commodities prices increase at a faster rate towards the end of an economic expansion, and there is evidence that such a move has already begun. We have seen “surprise” increases in shipping rates, natural gas prices, cocoa, coal and iron… Continue reading Banks Avoid Commodity Lending
The Wall Street Journal – More Fearful, Investors Scale Back Volatility Short Bet Wall Street’s bet against fear, a big winner this year, is starting to wane. The relative calm in the U.S. stock market has made wagering on a decline in the CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, a popular trade for much of this… Continue reading Traders See Volatility On The Horizon
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The Wall Street Journal – Selling Sweeps Global Government Bonds; U.S. 10-Year Yield Above 1.8% A fresh wave of selling swept government bonds in the developed world on Thursday, sending the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note to the highest level in nearly five months. Two factors drove investors to shed holdings: The… Continue reading Bond Market Sentiment
The Washington Post – House wave still looking more like a ripple for Democrats The most likely outcome in November is both strong Democratic gains in Congress (potentially wavelike) and a Hillary Clinton victory. A Clinton victory would constitute a status-quo election, since the current occupant of the White House is a Democrat, and Trump ran… Continue reading House & Senate Betting Update