28 Jul 2016

Fed Seems Hawkish to Media, Not Markets

As expected, the FOMC left rates steady following its July meeting, noting that the labor market had strengthened since June and that economic activity had been expanding at a moderate rate. Ryan Craft noted that the media is talking as if the Fed was quite hawkish, but the markets didn’t behave that way.  He noted that yields were falling sharply, stocks were largely unchanged after the news and that fed… Read More

By David Ott Tags: , ,
6 Jul 2016

Negative Swiss Yields Get Even Crazier

One of the more striking headlines yesterday was that Swiss government bonds now have negative yields out 50 years – that’s right, 50 years! That’s a little hard to fathom, partly because we don’t have bonds that extend that far, but also because 50 years is such a long time.  I mean, if I bought a 50 year bond, I’d be in my 90s before I got my money back. Forget inflation, I’m just talking… Read More

By David Ott Tags: ,
5 Jul 2016

Why Did Stocks and Bonds Gain Last Week?

One of the interesting things about the stock rally last week is that bonds also rallied.  Over longer periods, stocks and bonds are lowly correlated, which means that they are generally independent from each other. Over very short periods, especially when there is a lot of activity, stocks and bonds are usually negatively correlated.  If you had told me that stocks would rebound sharply last week and gain 3.27 percent, which reversed most… Read More

By David Ott Tags: , , ,
22 Jun 2016

A Cloud on the Horizon

“Businesses are Falling Behind on Their Loans Like it’s 2008.”   This is a headline that popped up on my Bloomberg TOP news screen recently.  Since the financial crisis, every bank I have talked to has been focused on increasing C&I lending.  After being snake bit by real estate, banks have all chased after commercial loans.  That makes a headline like this particularly alarming and a situation worth further investigation. Looking… Read More

By Ryan Craft Tags: , , , , ,
22 Jun 2016

Bullard’s Errant Dot Matches Market

In the market summary section above the performance table yesterday, I mentioned that St. Louis Fed President James Bullard had broken ranks with his fellow Fed members and his previous statements and said that he expected rates to stay even lower for longer. I made a quick reference to the famous ‘dot plot’ and said that his dots were pretty far from the consensus.  I thought today I would show the dot… Read More

By David Ott Tags: ,
21 Jun 2016

Bond Market Continues to Surprise

Even though I was on vacation, I couldn’t resist checking market results right before bed (and sometimes during the day).  I was shocked by two benchmark yields: the German 10-year below zero and the US 10-year at 1.57 percent. German 10-year yields have never been negative and the US 10-year has was just 0.18 percent off its all-time low of 1.39 percent, set back in July 2012.  At one point,… Read More

By David Ott Tags: , ,
19 May 2016

Yield Curve Swiftly Shifting

When looking at the shape of the yield curve it’s easy to see that a lot has changed. Low yields overall have certainly pinched bond investors and made them look elsewhere for returns, but not all investors are so flexible. For banks who are restricted in terms of the investments that they are allowed to hold, the decision of where in the bond market to invest is an important one… Read More

By Cliff Reynolds Tags: , , ,
28 Apr 2016

Fed Stands Pat For Now

As expected, the Federal Reserve left policy unchanged.  For the third straight meeting, they left out any assessment of the balance or risks and said that they ‘continue to monitor inflation indicators and global economic and financial developments. The big concern going into the meeting was that the Fed could describe risk as more closely balanced, potentially providing a strong signal for a June rate hike. The statement no longer… Read More

By David Ott Tags: ,
16 Feb 2016

Fed Policy: From ZIRP to NIRP?

In the third quarter last year, I wrote at least two articles that used the acronym ZIRP, which stands for ‘zero interest rate policy.’  At the time, all of the conversation was about how the Fed was ending ZIRP with their first interest rate hike in seven years. Today is the two-month anniversary of the hike and the discussion has moved from ZIRP to NIRP, which stands for ‘negative interest… Read More

By David Ott Tags: ,
5 Feb 2016

Interest Rates in Perspective

So far, 2016 has been full of surprises, but most of the attention has gone to wildly volatile oil and stock prices.  Less noticed, but equally important, has been the boost on bond prices, as seen by the dramatic fall in bond yields. The 10-year US Treasury note, the bellwether benchmark, started out the year yielding 2.27 percent, 10 basis points (a basis point is one hundredth of one percent)… Read More

By David Ott Tags: , ,