The story line for a number of years now has been the “search for yield” and how the recent low-interest-rate environment has been forcing investors down in credit or out the maturity curve in an effort to maintain income though adding risk. Now that interest rates have begun reversing the low-rate environment, fixed-coupon securities may Read more […]
The ten year Treasury note closed with a yield over 2.5% this week, sparking talk that interest rates may have bottomed. The first chart shows the yield on the 10 year treasury going all the way back to 1953. As seen there, the bottom in July 2016 at 1.5%. Last March the yield was 2.5%, Read more […]
The U.S. Treasury yield curve, as represented by the S&P U.S. Treasury Bond Current Indices, ended June 14, 2017, tighter (lower in yield) than the previous day. The importance of June 14 is that it was the day on which the U.S. Federal Reserve raised the target rate by 25 bps, from 1% to 1.25%. The following Read more […]
With the President’s focus on the U.S. infrastructure this coming week it is a good time to look at the existing infrastructure bond markets. Municipal bonds have long played a critical funding role in the U.S. infrastructure sector. The 19,000 tax-exempt municipal bonds tracked in the S&P Municipal Bond Infrastructure Index mainly consist of investment grade bonds Read more […]
There have been a myriad of articles with headlines and content about rising rates, the coming evisceration and other zombie apocalypse events in the bond markets. There can be no doubt that yields for fixed income asset classes are low and there is also no doubt that rates will eventually be higher. How, when and Read more […]
Overall, general obligation bonds have underperformed revenue bonds over the last five years of low rates. State general obligation bonds have been the sector that is holding back returns as the lower yield and shorter duration characteristics of these bonds have resulted in muted returns in the up market. While revenue bonds have a larger foot print by par Read more […]
This morning’s Wall Street Journal reported, rather breathlessly, that “U.S. bond yields are topping a key measure of the dividends that large U.S. companies pay—a shift that has broad implications for investors….” The headline was triggered by the observation that the 2.50% “yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note…exceeded the 1.91% dividend yield on the Read more […]
Why worry? New highs for the U.S. stock market indices will keep coming, right? Just in case, this might be a good time to examine asset classes that are not correlated to the equity market or the “uncorrelated”. Corporate bonds of the issuers in the S&P 500 are tracked in the S&P 500 Bond Index. As a group Read more […]
A look back may be a telling way to view municipal bonds in 2017. The modest total return of the S&P Municipal Bond Index (0.77%) in 2016 masked an atypical year of volatility for the normally staid market place. During the year, municipal bonds enjoyed being one of the ‘risk off’ asset classes and as low Read more […]
The long end of the yield curve for U.S. corporate and municipal bonds could be held range bound over the next several months as there are various forces at play. Drivers for yields to rise: Inflation expectations: actual and anticipated inflation can impact bond holders and hits the yields of long term bonds the hardest. Infrastructure programs: Read more […]