Posts Tagged ‘no inflation’

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…)

Lines In The Sand

January 19th, 2017 by Kurt L. Smith

On January 10^th, Big Bill Gross the Bond King, drew his line in the sand referencing the ten year treasury yield at 2.60%. If the ten year yield goes above 2.60% this year, said Big Bill, the bear bull market would be on and its effects on the stock market would be felt.

Now you tell us Bill. After a historic first half of 2016 which gave us the final throes of a mania in Bonds, we experienced a historic sell-off in the second half with yields doubling from July to December in ten year yields. Indeed, the bear market for bonds has not only begun but, depending on maturity horizon, has been in place since 2012.

With the stock market continuing its version of the Bonds final mania, Big Bill probably also knows that nobody cares. Off his throne at PIMCO, Big Bill probably needed to reference stocks in his bond bear market call for relevance sake.

Until the mania in stocks ends, and like the long bull market in bonds, it will end, no one will probably care, or notice, the bond market. Investors in stocks are making money just by owning stocks, not by listening or following experts like Big Bill. (more…)

The Trend Is Not Your Friend

November 11th, 2015 by Kurt L. Smith

Investors look to the Federal Reserve for economic leadership. Looking backward, one might say the Fed helped get the economy back on track with lower interest rates, higher asset prices and lower unemployment. Looking forward, the Fed continues to feed us the line that next month or next quarter will be better. (more…)

Markets Move; Fed Does Not

October 5th, 2015 by Kurt L. Smith

We have witnessed a reversal from the slow and steady rise of the stock market to greater volatility including a twelve percent decline in the Dow in a mere four days back in August. Stocks recovered going into the Federal Reserve’s interest rate announcement September 17^th, yet the Fed chose not to move on interest rates. (more…)

Rates Rise, Prices Fall

August 12th, 2015 by Kurt L. Smith

Interest rates are moving higher. While markets do not move in a straight line, they do move consistent with the trend. The trend for interest rates is up and the ramifications for investors worldwide will probably be huge. (more…)

Now It Gets Interesting

November 3rd, 2014 by Kurt L. Smith

The Dow shed 1500 points last month and all of a sudden we can focus on something other than congratulating policymakers on keeping stock prices high and bond yields low. The financial world has been changing in rather dramatic ways but as long as stocks levitated and defied gravity no one seemed to care. (more…)

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