Few investors need reminding that stocks are having a rotten year. But the slump in equities is a mere tremor compared with the tectonic shifts underway in the bond market.for the ages, with some benchmarks of performance posting their worst numbers ever recorded in a calendar year.
Around the world, bond yields have soared, which tends to happen when the appetite for owning bonds shrinks – declining investor demand drives bond prices down, which translates to higher yields. On Thursday, the yield on 10-year debt issued by the U.S. government rose to 4.2 per cent, its highest since the global financial crisis nearly 15 years ago.
This is not how bond markets are supposed to function. As an asset class, bonds are often expected to provide stability, especially when economic cracks are forming. The bonds sitting on central banks’ balance sheets globally ballooned to US$36-trillion – nearly 30 per cent of the total value of bonds outstanding. This type of stimulus served to stabilize financial markets and keep interest rates as low as possible.
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Source: BloombergCA - 🏆 73. / 51 Read more »