Forget US Treasuries, Chinese bonds are the new safe-haven trade
Since the start of the war, foreigners have: - Dumped $82B of Treasuries - Piled into panda bonds And this has nothing to do with China paying higher yields… - US 10-year yield: 4.4% - China 10-year yield: 1.8% In the midst of the biggest energy crisis, foreigners are choosing panda bonds over USTs. Source: Bloomberg, Lukas Ekwueme
Chinese government bonds have sidestepped a global debt sell-off since the start of the Iran war, emerging as a haven from soaring energy prices and rising global inflation.
Source: FT
Do NOT expect bond volatility (MOVE index) to go down as long as oil prices stay elevated...
Source: Bloomberg, RBC
European bond markets are having one of their worst months in a decade.
Italy's 10-yr yield hit 4.14% - highest since mid-2024. France's touched 3.9% - highest since 2009. Spain's at 3.7% - highest since 2023. The last time Eurozone borrowing costs moved this fast was in the 2022 energy crisis. The difference is that one cost €651 billion to contain. Source: FT, Nic @nicrypto
Fixed Income: Are markets starting to price in “growth fear” (instead of inflation fear”) ?
•A notable bid to bonds on Friday (decoupling from the correlation-one with oil and stocks) suggests inflation fears are ebbing, and attention is shifting to growth concerns. Monday market action gives the same message… •5Y5Y inflation swaps signal the ongoing decline in medium-term inflation... Source: Bloomberg, www.zerohedge.com
US 10 year flirting with the huge 4.4% level. A decisive close above this resistance area and rates risk squeezing more.
Source: TME
The biggest elephant in the room IS NOT stocks, it is the bond market
The US 10-year Treasury yield spiked +13 basis points on Friday to 4.38%, the 2nd-largest single-day jump since the April 2025 Liberation Day sell-off. Since early March, the 10-year yield has surged +45 basis points, the fastest rise in nearly a year. The bond market sell-off is being driven by soaring oil prices fueling inflation fears, hawkish signals from the Fed and Bank of England, and hedge funds being forced to unwind leveraged bond trades at a loss. If yields rise another 20 to 30 basis points from here, it could trigger a liquidation cascade across all asset classes as institutional trading desks would have no choice but to slash risk exposure, similarly to April 2025. Source: Global Markets Investor
Market action in fixedincome wasn't great yesterday.
Treasuries (upper chart) were a bloodbath yesterday with yields up 5-8bps (long-end lagging, now up 10bps on the week)... High Yield OAS spreads (lower chart) have begun to widen (credit underperformed stocks yesterday) Something to keep a very close eye on. Source: zerohedge
