Category Archives: Bonds

The Rhyme of History

While stocks have generally tended to offer better returns than Treasuries, it has not all been plain sailing for equity investors. Intriguingly, the last 50 years’ ups and downs share more than a few similarities with the first half of the last century. Could that uncanny resemblance continue to hold henceforward?

MOVE-ing the Dial

Bond yields have started to creep higher – and curves to flex steeper – as the market begins to fret that the willing fiscal subservience of the central bank can only presage a coming inflation. With bond volatility still reasonably cheap, now might be the time to take cognisance of this.

ERP-RIP

If we compare like with like, we find that the semi-mythical ‘equity risk premium’ may not be quite the yardstick it’s made out to be. In fact, the right sort of bonds have proven every bit as rewarding as stock, over the years and it’s cheap to bet they might do so again

Squawk Box: Oil and more

Ahead of my remote appearance on CNBC Squawk Box Europe on April 3rd, I prepared a few notes for the guys which I am happy to share here with you. The main topic, ahead of the emergency OPEC meeting which briefly bolstered crude prices that week was, unsurprisingly, oil but we did also discuss the outlook for the wider economy.

Overstretch

Markets have paradoxically both been on edge – and in the throes of euphoria – since the repo shock in mid-September, being at the same time alarmed and yet strangely reassured by the Fed’s frantic backpedalling and the $400+ billion boost to its balance sheet which this entailed. Extreme levels of overstretch are everywhere apparent.

Turnaround Tuesday

After the excitement of the past few sessions, it was not entirely unexpected that what we old market stagers used to call, ‘Turnaround Tuesday’, would deliver its traditional mix of reflection, position rebalancing, and general counter-trend moves of either the stop-profit or the ‘Why do I always buy the top?’, buyers’ regret kind. [First Published […]

Dog Chases Tail

The sharpening of the conflict between China and the US became all too apparent last week when Beijing released an official white paper in which it seemingly abandoned all hint of conciliation with a burst of accusations, exculpations, and a good deal of bluster. [First Published June 3rd]