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Posts Tagged ‘Warren Buffett’

Is This It?

September 25th, 2024 by Kurt L. Smith

For about eleven months now, bonds have traded higher in price and lower in yield in the most recent correction of the nascent bond bear market. From near 0% interest rates in 2020 to over 5% in 2023 in longer US treasury notes (below 0% to 5.50% for treasury bills), corrections are natural movements in how trends are developed.

While bond prices have rallied, we have also seen stocks hitting new highs as well. Even the Federal Reserve jumped on the bandwagon cutting rates this week to fulfill the promise made last month.

Yet for so much time, for so much work, the rebound in bonds looks pathetic. Most, if not all, of the rally occurred in the final nine weeks of last year. Our favorite long treasury bond, the 1.25% of May 15, 2050, traded at 43.25 on October 20th, 2023, and just over 55 on December 28th, weeks later. That’s a nice 27% gain for prescient traders, but a far cry from the 102 on August 6th, 2020 (all prices and yields per Bloomberg). This is what a bond bear market looks like.

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Not Lower For Longer

May 7th, 2020 by Kurt L. Smith

Last month’s letter highlighted the opportunity available in managed fixed income funds. March 6th was a pivotal moment with record low US Treasury bond yields and historically low spreads for other bonds, such as municipals, that I believe fixed income fund performance may be negative for years to come.

The high prices for bonds on March 6th, I believe, are the bond corollary for the record highs in stock prices in February. The dramatic swoon down in prices in early March affected both asset classes. Diversification between the two offered little safety.

Now, approximately six weeks from the March lows, prices have bounced back strongly. Taking a long-term approach, both stocks and bonds remain near their record highs. Looking backwards, the patient investor appears to be sitting in a good place atop decades of bull market bond and stock performance.

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