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发帖数: 4825 | 1 Behind Bond Market’s Stall, Investors See Hard Times Ahead
Treasury yields that are reliably this low have wide-ranging implications
for markets and economy
By Sam Goldfarb
May 20, 2020
Yields on U.S. government bonds have stalled near all-time lows, a sign that
investors are anticipating a difficult economic recovery and years of
aggressive monetary stimulus.
For much of the past month and a half, the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.
S. Treasury note has hovered around two-thirds of a percentage point—a
shade above its all-time low of around 0.5% set in March.
Taken together, the low level of the 10-year yield and its stability suggest
that bond investors not only hold a dreary economic outlook but also are
unusually confident in that perspective, a contrast with the optimism that
has carried stocks to their highest levels since early March.
An important benchmark for interest rates across the economy, the ultralow
10-year Treasury yield has facilitated an explosion of corporate-bond
issuance from the likes of Costco Wholesale Corp., Apple Inc. and Clorox Co.
Monday’s news that an experimental coronavirus vaccine from the drugmaker
Moderna Inc. had shown promise in an early trial helped push the 10-year
yield to the top of its recent range. But the yield, which falls when bond
prices rise, edged lower again Tuesday and remained at roughly half of its
low from before this year.
Two factors typically determine longer-term Treasury yields. One is
investors’ estimates of the average federal-funds rate set by the Federal
Reserve over the life of a bond. The other is what is sometimes referred to
as a risk premium, or an extra amount of yield investors demand to be
compensated for the chance that short-term interest rates could rise higher
than anticipated as a result of scenarios such as accelerating economic
growth and inflation.
Tuesday’s closing 10-year yield of 0.711% suggests many investors believe
that the Fed could basically repeat its postcrisis playbook: leaving the
federal-fund rate near zero for about seven years before raising it to
around 2%. Yields are lower than they were a decade ago in large part
because investors feel more assured about that outcome, having seen the
central bank implement such policies before without spurring a significant
pickup in inflation.
The risk premiums embedded in Treasurys “are basically zero or nonexistent,
” said Thanos Bardas, global co-head of investment grade at Neuberger
Berman.
Expecting yields to remain rangebound over the next few quarters, Mr. Bardas
said he likes Treasurys in the seven to 10-year range and has high hopes
for the new 20-year bonds that are set to be reintroduced by the Treasury
Department on Wednesday.
The stability of Treasury yields is particularly notable because it comes
even as an unprecedented deluge of new debt floods the market. Not only has
the Treasury Department ramped up the size of bond auctions to fund
trillions of dollars in economic-relief measures but higher-rated companies
also have been bombarding investors with new bond sales as they try to
replace revenue that is being lost as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Fed, meanwhile—after saying in March it would buy an unlimited amount
of Treasurys—has slowed the pace of its purchases to $6 billion a day from
$75 billion a day.
Still, yields have barely budged, indicating that “globally, there’s
tremendous demand for that high-quality debt,” said Colin Robertson, head
of fixed income at Northern Trust Asset Management.
Treasury yields that are reliably this low have wide-ranging implications
for markets and the economy. For investors, paltry yields might signal a
gloomy future. But they can also propel them into riskier assets in search
of returns, a likely factor in the surprisingly strong rebound in stocks
since their sharp decline earlier in the year.
Low yields have also encouraged borrowing. For a brief period in March,
corporate borrowing costs shot upward as fear gripped markets and investors
sold bonds from even the safest companies. Since then, though, the average
extra yield investors demand to hold investment-grade corporate bonds over
Treasurys has shrunk, enabling businesses to benefit from the low benchmark
rates.
Last month, Costco sold 10-year notes with a 1.619% yield, the lowest on
record for that maturity, according to LCD, a unit of S&P Global Market
Intelligence. Other companies that have recently issued 10-year bonds with
sub-2% yields include Apple, Clorox and International Business Machines Corp
. Overall, through Monday, nonfinancial companies had issued $148 billion of
investment-grade bonds this month after selling a record $231 billion in
April, according to Dealogic.
Treasury yields could turn even less volatile if the Fed adopts a policy
known as yield-curve control, several analysts said. A cousin of
quantitative easing, yield-curve control entails purchasing an unlimited
amount of bonds at a particular maturity to peg rates at a target.
Yield-curve control has been used for years by the Bank of Japan to keep the
yield on 10-year Japanese government bonds at around 0%. In March, the
Reserve Bank of Australia said it would set a target of 0.25% for the
country’s three-year government bond.
In the U.S., Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said last fall that “short-term
yield-curve control is something that is worth looking at” as a tool to
fight the next recession. It is far from certain that the Fed will enact
such a policy. Still, the mere discussion has likely contributed to the bond
market’s calm, analysts said.
Something similar happened to corporate bonds after the Fed said in March it
would start buying the securities, said Thomas Simons, senior vice
president and money-market economist in the Fixed Income Group at Jefferies
LLC. Though it was nearly two months before the Fed started implementing the
program, the announcement alone sparked a rush into the asset class as
investors anticipated the Fed’s backing.
“Just knowing that the Fed could do something is almost the same as the Fed
actually doing it,” Mr. Simons said.
Not all investors are unconcerned about a pickup in inflation that could
push longer-term yields higher. A welcome surprise—such as an early vaccine
available for emergency use this fall—could provide a major boost to the
economy. Some also see risk in the tremendous amounts of money that the
federal government is spending to help the economy, coupled with the promise
of unlimited bond-buying from the Fed, which essentially helps finance that
spending.
“The Fed wants to push inflation higher, and is willing to keep monetary
policy accommodative even as the economy recovers from the Covid-19 shutdown
to get inflation expectations up,” said Donald Ellenberger, senior
portfolio manager at Federated Investors.
Mr. Ellenberger said he therefore sees value in Treasury-inflation-protected
securities, or TIPS.
Still, he said, his team’s strategy is to “trade the range”—betting on
higher yields when the 10-year falls below 0.6% and lower yields if it
approaches 1% in large part because of the Fed’s continued bond-buying and
desire to support the economy. | u***r
发帖数: 4825 | 2 The Fed, meanwhile—after saying in March it would buy an unlimited amount
of Treasurys—has slowed the pace of its purchases to $6 billion a day from
$75 billion a day.
What!? | u***r
发帖数: 4825 | 3 用点数订了一年的WSJ，但是越看越糊涂啊
搞不懂 |
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