Is the Multi-year Bond Rally Over?

Back a month ago, I needed to rebalance my portfolio by selling some equities. I’ve dithered around reinvesting those proceeds in the fixed income portion of my portfolio, but when a CD matured this month, I simply had too much money sitting in a money market fund earning a walloping .03% a year. (That’s $30 per $100,000.)

Thinking about fixed income forced me to ask this question: is the multi-year bond rally over? My conclusion is that it is, but I have no clue how long rates will continue to stay at their current low levels. As I am writing this, 1-year treasuries have a yield of about .18%; 10-year treasuries yield 2.21%. For TIPs the real rates of return are -.11% for 10-year bonds and only .89% for 30-year TIPs.

Think about that for a second. If you buy 10-year TIPs you pretty much guarantee that after ten years you can buy less with the results of your investment than you can buy right now, and that’s before you pay taxes on your “gains.” Such a deal!

The Federal Reserve has committed to keeping short-term rates close to zero through 2014 in order to stimulate economic growth. They have also worked to flatten out the yield curve, which is part of the reason 30-year TIPs have real rates of return under 1%. (And 30-year mortgages are again under 4.00%)

Another reason for the current low interest rates is that with the instability of global economics, the US economy still looks like a good bet to those worried about their money. Despite the massive budget deficits the US runs, whenever there is a spike in economic uncertainty, money continues to plow into US treasuries.

Short-term we can have more uncertainty. The Fed can institute QE3 (quantitative easing round 3) and interest rates will again decline. Or Congress can do something stupid (alright, even more stupid than what they have been doing) and cause confidence in the dollar to drop. If I could prognosticate short-term bond moves, I’d be raking in 8 figures a year—and I’m not.

But looking at the long-term I think we must be very near to the end of the multi-year bond rally.

1. Very short-term rates cannot go much lower on a long-term basis than the virtual zero currently in effect. Yes, if there is a scare people may be willing to accept negative short-term nominal rates, but not for long.

2. Although we know bond buyers are willing to buy “safety” at the price of real value retention (witness the 10-year real TIP yield of -.11%), even as the Fed tries to flatten the yield curve, how much more real return are investors willing to give up for safety? And for how long a period—surely not for  30 years? This phenomenon cannot last forever.

3. US Inflation is running around 3% in an environment of 8% unemployment and the Fed holding down interest rates. If the Fed is successful at stimulating the economy, at some point wages will again start to rise and inflationary pressures will increase. Not only will bond yields will have to increase in order to maintain the same real rate of return, but the Fed may switch from worrying about unemployment to worrying about inflation and start to actively increase interest rates itself.

4. Money continues to move away from bonds, seeking higher returns. Corporate bonds have had a very strong run, with high-yield corporate bonds doing even better. As even these riskier investments are priced higher and higher, people will turn away from fixed-income securities and chase commodities (even more than they have.) Eventually the housing stock will rebalance and housing prices will start to rise, attracting new money.

5. Once the Fed either (a) no longer pumps money into the system because they think the employment market is healed or (b) starts to worry about inflation, their massive support of low interest rates will wane. At that point, there will be a very rapid rise in interest rates with the consequential large capital loss—largest in high-duration fixed income instruments.

I don’t know when this will happen, but I do think it will. And when it does, unless one can quickly liquidate one’s position, the capital losses will be massive. Unlike other fixed income bear markets where coupons offset much of the capital decline, now we have almost no coupon interest and so there is no cushion.

My personal conclusion is to keep in money markets only that amount I will need for expenses in the next year. Because of the Fed’s low rates, banks have little current need for investor funds so CD rates are pitiful. However, even those pitifully low rates are better than the equivalent duration treasuries, so CDs are preferable given that their principal is guaranteed (with limits) by the FDIC.

However, to even match inflation, I’ll need to put the rest of my bond allocation in short-term corporates. Doing so, I am taking on more risk, but I do not see corporate debt quality declining much in the next 24-months (and I’ll stay away from junk.) I’ll ladder a few securities, giving a bit of diversification in both company and duration. As bonds mature, I can decide how to redeploy those funds.

If I am wrong, I’ve given up a bit of yield to long-term bonds I could have purchased instead. If I’m right, I’ll save a lot in capital losses I have avoided. That sounds like a good trade-off to me.

~ Jim

Electra 1994-2012

We called her our dumb blond. She was neither, but such is the way with many nicknames. For the first 14 years of her life, she played the stereotypical scaredy-cat to her brother Orestes’ pick-up artist. While Orestes would sidle up to any visitor for a well-deserved pet, she would hide under the bed, exhibiting an uncanny sense of geometry, knowing exactly how far we could reach underneath from any direction. She was the quiet one, with an occasional puuurrrp to let you know of her presence so you didn’t accidently step on her. She never got into a catfight herself, but egged her brother on if an intruder appeared in the side yard.

After Orestes determined that he would join us in walking the dog around the block, Electra felt left out and would voice her discontent. One day she screwed up her courage and trotted after us, calling the entire way. With much encouragement she finally made it. Thereafter, we were known in the neighborhood as the people who walked their cats. [As the cats know, we were really the family where the cats walked their people.]

After Orestes’ death in 2008, Electra literally found her voice. She learned to hold conversations and would berate her staff should they not serve a meal on time or open the door quickly enough to let her in or out or in again. She had always been a lap cat with family, but she replaced her brother as the greeter of company, paying particular attention to those most allergic to cat dander.

She did have a few peculiarities. She was convinced that weather should be different between the back door and front door and that her servants were responsible for bad weather. Any water found outside, regardless of its color or texture, was better than the water her servants provided inside—the possible exception being that from the toilet bowl. She trained dogs—just ask Morgan or her predecessor Thoreau who was in charge.

She knew the pleasures of being a hearth cat and would follow the sun from one favorite perch to another. She was a thoroughly satisfactory cat; I hope she can say the same about us. She is survived by her Golden Retriever, Morgan, and her staff, Jan and Jim.

 ~ Jim