Jun 07
I know I’m a day late with this but anyway… like everyone I was absolutely shocked at the sensational GDP result that came out yesterday. Since August last year the bond market has been moving in a direction that indicates our economy is not what it seems but nevertheless the 12 months to March 2012 shows real …
Jun 01
Australian Government Bond Yield Curve – 1 June 2012 – 4.06pm Source: www.bloomberg.com The 3 year Australian government bond is currently 2.06%…this is truly extraordinary. When you throw in the fact that Germany, USA, and Switzerland also have record low bond yields its really looking like a serious run for safety…but major equity markets haven’t really moved …
May 30
Source: RBA I know I’ve written more posts on the Australian Government Bond Yield than ever but with the yield curve hitting record lows its pretty hard to ignore. The above chart shows where the yields finished yesterday and today they’re lower again. The European situation is definitely the main driver as funds move to …
May 18
Source: RBA In less than 2 weeks the Australian Government Bond yield curve has dropped another 20bps plus and since August last year, the yield curve has dropped around 160bps on average…which means for bond fund owners double digit returns over the previous 12 months continue. Obviously the main reason for this drop in yield …
May 10
As expected the Federal Budget focused on a surplus and to the government’s credit is looking to distribute some of their mining profits to the not so wealthy. Whilst the opposition is suggesting that some of the cash payments will be going straight to retailers instead of their intended purpose, that’s not necessarily a bad …
May 07
Source: RBA As the above chart shows, the yield curve has dropped 70 to 90bps for all terms since March 19. With a 3 year bond yield just above 2.80%, which is close to where it was during the worst of the GFC, its pretty obvious markets aren’t too confident in the strength of our …
Apr 24
Source: RBA, Comminsure, Challenger Life, RimSec The above chart is pretty strong evidence as to why investors are placing their money into term deposits and annuities…very very attractive margins over government bonds. As you can see, at the 5 year term the interest rates for term deposits and annuities are almost double! When you consider that …
Apr 19
Source: RBA The above chart shows that bond yields shows that after bond yields reached a high around 1 month ago they have declined across all terms by around 50bps. That means that most of the traditional bond funds would have produced capital gains of around 2% over that last month (because the duration od …
Apr 02
Source: RBA In less than two weeks the yield curve managed to drop around 15bps back to levels similar to those of late January. This is despite slightly stronger equity markets, the ASX200 made it through the 4,300 barrier for the first time in many months, and not that much in the way of really bad news…I …
Mar 20
Well…not normal yet. The shorter part of the curve suggests the market is expecting another two 25bps cuts by the RBA but with the Euro sovereign crisis well and truly looking much better its highly unlikely there’ll be any cuts soon. Whilst there’s plenty of evidence that shows the Euro sovereign crisis has improved, nothing …