Posts Tagged ‘bond bull market’

Correction Highs (And Lows)

July 11th, 2019 by Kurt L. Smith

For the past several months we’ve seen giddy up; now we are left only with giddy. Be it Stocks, Bonds, or even Gold, asset prices have generally had a nice 2019 bounce. To a large extent asset prices have peaked together. Unfortunately the rallies appear to be over, meaning lower prices from here.

How can that be? The news is great, prices are rallying and even the Federal Reserve appears poised to lower interest rates as yields have shriveled as US Treasury note and bond prices have jumped. The trend should be our friend and the trend is up, across the board for assets, right?

Wrong! The trend is not up. Despite nice gains for this year, assets are in the midst of finishing upward corrections. Gold, which peaked in September 2011 at $1921, bottomed in December 2015 at $1047 where it began a rally that may have recently ended at $1440 last month (all asset prices and dates per Bloomberg). While an additional advance may unfold, the next major move in my opinion is lower, to new lows rather than new highs.

(more…)

Depths of Summer

August 6th, 2018 by Kurt L. Smith

Heady days and bond markets rarely go together. Nor do the terms ‘bond market’ and ‘news’. Add summer and vacations into the mix and the bond market becomes French. Absent.

I may exaggerate but not much. Thankfully we are not looking to keep up (or primarily down) with any bond index, we are not burdened by scale or the inability to find worthwhile bonds. Every day I get to practice and build my skills and every day things come together. Except in the summer, things come a bit more slowly.

Last month I discussed how the markets are poised for a fall. One more month without the Bond Crash of 2018, but the first of August brought ten year US Treasury note yields back to 3% for the first time in several months. Most of 2018 has so far been a correction of the dramatically higher yields (and double-digit price losses of longer bonds). Whether we begin the next phase of higher rates and lower prices immediately or whether it takes a few more months, is not important. What is important is you are prepared and you are prepared because you own the proper asset, chosen by The Select Approach^TM. (more…)

Shot Across The Bow

March 1st, 2018 by Kurt L. Smith

While bonds continued their slow, steady march to higher yields (and lower prices), the stock market corrected. One thousand Dow points lost in just over an hour. Stock indexes swooned, even falling below the levels I marked in my November Letter as the Top of Tops.

I am sure you didn’t sell in November, just as I am sure you didn’t sell 3,000 points higher at 26,500 in January. You are not conditioned to sell; you are conditioned to buy the dips. We have enjoyed thirty-plus years of bull market reinforcement, not to mention every bit of economic, scholarly and sage advice written to further reinforce stocks for the long run.

Last month’s letter predicts the bond crash of 2018. Despite the stock market’s gyrations of late, the bond market neither soared or crashed. The bond market continues to deteriorate, yet at a seemingly glacial pace over the past several months. Ten year US Treasury notes were 2.01% on September 2^nd and touched 2.95% in February (Bloomberg) while activity in municipal bond markets remain somewhat muted. Overall, new higher yields for US Treasury notes and bonds, furthering the bond bear market but no crash, yet. (more…)

The Bond Crash of 2018

February 1st, 2018 by Kurt L. Smith

Another month of higher interest rates continues the upward trend since my call back in June that interest rates are moving higher. A slow slog, yes, but bond prices are slowly sinking. The market continues to chip away at the general consensus of “lower rates longer”.

This is the story of how a gargantuan bond market turns.

Over the course of the thirty-plus year bond bull market no discussion of bonds could be had without mention of inflation. As inflation heated up throughout the 1970s and peaked in 1980, bond prices collapsed…until they collapsed their last. Inflation figures began to decline as well. As double-digit inflation figures became a thing of the past, the bond bull market began to gallop.

Bonds and inflation are believed to be inexorably linked. When asked whether there is risk of even higher interest rates today, most investment professionals will answer no adding that inflation is benign. Ask them why rates are up dramatically in the past few months and again, most would probably say that there has been a slight uptick in inflation.

As inflation goes, so goes interest rates. Or is it, as interest rates go, so goes inflation. One way or another, the general assumption is that interest rates and inflation are correlated. (more…)

Slow Moving Bond Bear To Quicken

October 16th, 2017 by Kurt L. Smith

The trend is indeed your friend and the only friend one has needed these past few years has been the one in stocks. Despite the fact that municipal bonds were the best performing asset class in 2014 (yeah, that long ago), stocks are where the action is. Enjoy it, because trends change.

When it comes to bonds, only two words are needed: low rates. Forget trend change; forget even a price or yield change. When it comes to bonds, low rates is all you need to know. Spoken by stock market pundits, why would anyone be concerned about bonds? Stocks are where the action is.

Rates are indeed low, but they have been lower. The reason we care is because the trend is your friend and when it comes to bonds, the trend has changed. You know it because I keep telling you. Sure it’s a lonely proposition, but the market continues, albeit v-e-r-y slowly, that I am indeed correct.

In June, I believed a 2.13% low on the ten year treasury completed the bond market’s correction of the 1.32% to 2.64% initial move up. Yep, I tried to hurry the market. In September the market hit 2.02%. But last week we were back to 2.40%. I like my proposition!

At rates of 2-this or 2-that, every stock investor will continue to claim the low rate mantra. But after a 1,000 or 5,000 point decline in the Dow, the perspectives will change. The story will change. (more…)

Capitulation

June 14th, 2017 by Kurt L. Smith

It is not often that followers of the all-too-staid bond markets get to use the word capitulation. Usually things don’t move fast enough (or far enough) to warrant the use of the word. We, however, having declared the end of a three decades long trend, see a significant change taking place.

We marked late 2012 as the end of the bull market in Bonds, though the hockey-stick final mania in the longest maturing bonds didn’t occur until last spring, culminating July 6, 2016. Shorter term bond yields had risen since 2012 while the 10 year US Treasury bottomed at 1.32%, a significant turning point in trend.

The second half of 2016 saw yields spike to 2.64%, such that by year-end (December 2016 Letter) we called for a correction of this first move in the long-term bear market for long-term bonds. Indeed yields moderated back down to 2.13% early in June. So far so good and right along our projected path.

Which brings us to today. Actually it was a June 9^th Bloomberg headline that used Capitulation, saying “Investors betting on rising bond yields just threw in the towel in a big way, according to Bank of America.” Citing the “biggest inflows to bonds in well over two years”, BofA concluded the performance of credit equities are “highly correlated.” (more…)

The Coming Change

October 15th, 2016 by Kurt L. Smith

If you frame the world in the context of long-term financial trends, you may see a world without change. Thirty five-plus year bull markets for stocks and bonds are where we have been and where we currently are. Not only have interest rates fallen from all-time record highs in the early 1980’s to all-time record lows lately, but the prospect for lower interest rates longer is the consensus for as far as the eye can see.

Market moves of this historic magnitude are what books are made for, not a monthly letter. After thirty five-plus years, what’s another one year, or five years? The consensus is lower longer. In other words, the consensus is for no change.

Yet the conditions for change continue to swell. Some people are angry, very angry, about our economic situation. Sure we have had one of our worst rebounds from a recession possibly ever. Some young people are asked to assume more and more debt while facing an insecure economic time. But angry? We are discovering the business model for pension funds is not working. Older workers, increasingly teachers, police, firefighters and other municipal workers are becoming increasingly aware how the ongoing lower longer outlook will impact them dramatically. (more…)

Too Big To Sell

March 4th, 2015 by Kurt L. Smith

As a long-time reader you know that I believe the bear market in Bonds began in June 2012. This is a “considerable” length of time ago, to use the parlance of the Federal Reserve, but when you are describing the end of an almost thirty year bull market run for Bonds, well, the longer they are, the harder they fall. (more…)

Big Bill Takes A Walk

October 9th, 2014 by Kurt L. Smith

Bill Gross leaving PIMCO is beyond newsworthy. While one expects to see successful founders, particularly billionaires, decide to hang it up and go do something different, Big Bill didn’t do that. Big Bill dropped a bombshell: he’s moving to Janus.

Big Bill was not a superstar in money management; he is a supernova. Like Peter Lynch of Fidelity’s Magellan mutual fund, Big Bill became a brand, the face of an entire asset class. And because everything is bigger in Bonds, Big Bill brought in big money, as in a trillion dollars or two. Big Bill is considered The Bond King! (more…)

Latest Newsletters