Analysis Topic: Interest Rates and the Bond Market
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Monday, February 09, 2009
Investment Strategy Favours Corporate Bonds / Interest-Rates / Corporate Bonds
By: Paul_J_Nolte
The worst employment report in well over a decade and the market jumps nearly 3% - could stocks be whistling past the graveyard or is there something more that we're missing? To be sure the news is bad and is going to be bad for the next couple of months as the reports are referencing the worst part of the severe recession. Job cuts seem to go hand in hand with earnings reports, housing remains dormant and even new home construction is well below “replacement” rates. Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, February 09, 2009
Stimulus Financing Faces Major Difficulties as Treasury Bond Market Shows / Interest-Rates / Economic Stimulus
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes: As I watch the $900 billion stimulus bill wind its way through Congress, knowing this will be piled atop the estimated 2009 deficit of $1.19 trillion, the longtime banker in me keeps asking the same worrisome question: How the devil are they going to finance all this rubbish?
A report released Wednesday by the U.S. Treasury Department's Borrowing Advisory Committee on the government's borrowing plans gave me the answer I expected: With great difficulty.
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Sunday, February 08, 2009
Bad Debt Crisis: Inadequate Loan Loss Reserves at Numerous Minnesota Banks / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2009
By: Mike_Shedlock
At Minnesota banks, bad loans are piling up much faster than the amount of money being set aside to cover them. The StarTribune takes a look at the problem in State's banks below norm in reserves . Despite repeated warnings of economic trouble ahead, banks in Minnesota have failed to keep pace with the rise in bad loans. Among those banks, the ratio of past-due and nonaccrual loans -- or loans for which payment is in doubt -- as a percentage of total loans rose 50 percent since 2006, while the reserves to total loans ratio remained virtually unchanged. Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, February 05, 2009
UK Interest Rates Crash to 1% New Record Low / Interest-Rates / UK Interest Rates
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The Bank of England fired the fifth shot in its series of panic interest rate cuts that have taken the base interest down from 5% in October 2008 to 1% today. This follows the crash in UK GDP for the fourth quarter of 2008 which contracted by -1.5% and is inline with earlier analysis that projects towards an additional 3% GDP contraction for 2009. Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Credit Crisis Watch: Liquidiy Injections Starting to Thaw Credit Freeze / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2009
By: Prieur_du_Plessis
Are the various central bank liquidity facilities and capital injections having the desired effect of unclogging credit markets and restoring confidence in the world's financial system? This is precisely what the “Credit Crisis Watch” is all about - a regular review of a number of measures in order to ascertain to what extent the thawing of credit markets is under way. Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Fixed-Income Investing: Safer Alternative to Equity Indexed Annuities / Interest-Rates / Investing 2009
By: Money_Morning
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: For many investors, the concept of an equity indexed annuity (EIA for short) - which establishes a guaranteed minimum rate of return, and the ability to capture the upside of the next bull market with no risk of loss - is proving irresistible. That's especially true at a time when the Standard & Poor's 500 Index is still down nearly 45% from its 2007 high of 157.52 and new U.S. President Barack Obama's stimulus plan has yet to be finalized. Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, February 02, 2009
U.S. Treasury Bond Market Puts in a Top Ahead of Treasury Auctions / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
By: Levente_Mady
The bond market traded down again last week, oddly competing with stocks for the “most pathetic security class” title for January. The Long Bond futures declined 10.5% from the highs on December 30. In January stocks declined 8.6% but the Bond Future was off 9.2%. In spite of the mostly pathetic (and therefore supportive for the Treasury market) fundamental data, the main theme that drove trading last week was the supply both on the Treasury and corporate front. The bond friendly Fed policy statement supported the market for about 5 minutes before it buckled sharply. Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, February 01, 2009
United States Day of Reckoning Treasury Bond Market Collapse Underway / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
By: Money_and_Markets
Martin Weiss writes: If you read just one of my Money and Markets issues this year, make sure it's this one.
You will not hear what I'm about to say from our nation's leaders. Nor will it pour forth from talking heads on Wall Street.
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Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Today's Interest Rates are Unreal! / Interest-Rates / Gold & Silver 2009
By: Michael_Pento
I'm often asked the question if rising interest rates will cause downward pressure on gold prices. The answer is yes, but only if those rates are rising in real terms and not in nominal terms only. But an even more important question that needs to be asked is whether or not the Fed will be able to allow rates to rise to a level that provides the market with a positive real return. The answer, unfortunately, is no. Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
U.S. Treasury Bond Bubble About to Pop / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: Frighteningly, like the rush into tech stocks, then the rush into real estate, and then the rush into commodities, the rush into U.S. government bonds has created a Treasury bubble. In a cruel twist of economic fate, passage of an aggressive Obama administration stimulus plan could further inflate that bubble - before popping it. Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Foreigners Puking Up U.S. Treasury Bonds / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
By: Oxbury_Research
New York Times: “ All the key drivers of China's Treasury purchases are disappearing — there's a waning appetite for dollars and a waning appetite for Treasuries, and that complicates the outlook for interest rates,” said Ben Simpfendorfer, an economist in the Hong Kong office of the Royal Bank of Scotland.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Bullish Pattern for Corporate Bond LQD ETF / Interest-Rates / Corporate Bonds
By: Mike_Paulenoff
My technical work in the iShares Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD) is very constructive, and points still higher on an intermediate term basis. My near term work has pivoted to the upside after a pullback from the 102.60 high on 1/09 into yest.'s low at 97.32. Why? Mr. Market perceives that there is "value" and relative safety in the corporate bond sector compared with the excess-supply, debt-beleaguered sovereign (US) Treasury sector. Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Bond Market Payment Rates Analysis / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
By: Richard_Shaw
Bond rates are easy to access, but understanding what you are being paid for the components of bond rates takes a little bit of simple math to break it down. Important insights can be gained from knowing the building blocks of a rate.
Rates for key bond types are published by multiple public internet sources. You may need to go to more than one to get all the detail you want.
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Monday, January 26, 2009
Treasury Bonds 5 Years of Interest Destroyed in 6 Weeks! / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
By: Money_and_Markets
Martin Weiss writes: Last month, investors from all over the world — spooked by the debt crisis — flocked to buy long-term U.S. Treasury bonds.
They bought U.S. bonds with money earned from China's export boom. They scooped up bonds with money gleaned from the savings of millions of Japanese families … with government money … oil money … even drug money.
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Monday, January 26, 2009
U.S. Treasury Bonds Expected to Bounce After Sharp Sell-off / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
By: Levente_Mady
The bond market appears to be settling down into a trading range after the sharp rally during the last 2 months of 2008. The Long Bond traded to its lowest level in nearly 2 months. My favoured scenario is that the market recovers a bit during the next 2 weeks and then it trades lower. Before that happens, traders need to deal with record size 2 and 5 Year Treasury Note auctions early in the week. Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, January 22, 2009
U.S. Treasury Bond Market Forecast 2009 / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The explosive long T-bond rally of November and December 2008 following deep U.S. interest rate cuts towards ZERO appears to have come to an end as treasury bonds broke below the most recent low. Therefore this analysis seeks to determine if the bond bubble is about to burst and how bonds could trend during the next 5 months of 2009. Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Are Inflation Proof TIPS Breathtakingly Cheap? / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
By: Mike_Shedlock
Inflation backed securities have been on a good run since November. Some still suggest that TIPS Are "Breathtakingly Cheap" . At a time when central banks are attempting to prevent deflation, the hottest investments in the government bond market are securities that protect debt holders against rising consumer prices.
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Tuesday, January 20, 2009
UltraShort TBT ETF Benefiting from U.S. Treasuries Decline / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
By: Mike_Paulenoff
The long end of the bond market, and the TLT's (Barclay's 20+ Year T-bond, ETF), are getting hurt today, despite a climbing US dollar. The TBT's (Proshares Ultrashort T-bond, ETF) is benefiting from the price action. Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Treasury Bonds Are the Key in 2009 / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
By: Jordan_Roy_Byrne
In 2008, the market that was the trigger for other markets was the currency market. The bottom in the dollar led to a peak in commodities and helped spur massive deleveraging and selling of various holdings. For certain, the increasing strength of the Yen also caused great damage to the global economy and global capital markets. There were only a handful of places to hide, free of volatility and immediate risk. Either you owned government bonds, the dollar or the yen. Gold advanced in 2008, though with extreme volatility compared to other safe-havens. Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Credit Crisis Explained: History of Debt Bubbles and Long-term Interest Rates / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2009
By: John_Mauldin
There is a reason I call this column Outside the Box. I try to get material that forces us to think outside our normal comfort zones and challenges our common assumptions. And this week's letter from Hoisington Investment Management Company does just that. Let me give you two quotes to pique your interest: "Monetary policy works by creating the environment for a renewed borrowing and lending cycle. This cycle would require that the debt to GDP ratio, which is already at a record level, grow even higher. Would such an outcome really be that desirable when the controlling problem of the U.S. economy is too much improperly financed debt? If the Fed were able to engender an increase in the debt to GDP ratio, this might merely serve to postpone the reckoning of the current debt levels while laying the foundation for an even more vicious unwinding down the road.Read full article... Read full article...