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| BondsOnline.com: instant access to and extensive coverage of over 3.5 million stocks, bonds, indexes and other securities covering major and emerging markets and exchanges across the globe. |
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| Bonds Online |
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| 5/10/2013Market Performance |
| Municipal Bonds |
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S&P National Bond Index
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3.00% |
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S&P California Bond Index
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2.96% |
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S&P New York Bond Index
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3.13% |
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S&P National 0-5 Year Municipal Bond Index
|
0.70% |
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| S&P/BGCantor US Treasury Bond |
400.09 |
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| Income Equities: |
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| Preferred Stocks |
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S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index
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848.03 |
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S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index (CAD)
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636.26 |
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S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index (TR)
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1,701.05 |
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S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index (TR) (CAD)
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1,276.26 |
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| REITs |
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S&P REIT Index
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174.07 |
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S&P REIT Index (TR)
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425.30 |
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| MLPs |
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S&P MLP Index
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2,469.58 |
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S&P MLP Index (TR)
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5,428.50 |
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See Data
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Bad News Bond Bulls
Disappointing economic data helps corporate bonds. |
Forbes.com - Oct 9, 2009 - by Matthew Craft
Disappointing economic data helps corporate bonds.
Bad economic news has been good for bonds. Investors have to find yield somewhere.
At a conference on Thursday night, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke restated the obvious. Bernanke said the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates "when the economic outlook has improved sufficiently." But a stalling economy pushes the prospect of significant interest-rate hikes further into the future. High unemployment and weak spending make inflation fears look out of place. After setting aside those threats, bond buyers are free to hunt for yield, a boon to companies raising cash in the new issue market.
Those selling debt this week include many dealing in oil and chemicals, industries expected to benefit from growth outside the U.S. Comstock Resources ( CRK - news - people ) boosted the size of its offering on Tuesday from $200 million in 8-year notes to $300 million in a deal led by Bank of America ( BAC - news - people ).
In the market for more risky speculative-grade bonds, chemical maker Solutia ( SOA - news - people ) raised $400 million on Friday, an extra $100 million more than planned. Nova Chemicals ( NCX - news - people ) and Wynn Las Vegas are expected to wrap up sales on Friday. KDP Investment Advisors counts $108 billion raised in the junk-bond market this year, nearly matching the $110 billion in the previous 12 months.
"New issuance is on fire," said Kathleen Gaffney, a bond portfolio manager at Loomis Sayles. One measure of the hunger for corporate bonds is reflected in how banks apportion new issues. Gaffney said she's getting "a pittance" of what she requests.
The reward in yield for holding corporate instead of Treasury debt dropped to 2.35 percentage points for investment-grade bonds and 7.4 percentage points for speculative-grade, according to the rating agency Standard & Poor's. Both spreads are still wider than their five-year averages: 196 percentage points for investment grade and 566 for speculative grade.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury paid a 3.3% yield on Friday. With three-month Treasury bills paying 0.06%, the yield curve remains steep. That has also propped up corporate credit, Gaffney said, enabling hedge funds to borrow from brokers at short-term rates to buy higher paying bonds.
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| Stuff to look at |
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| BondsOnline Advisor |
Income Security Recommendation January 2013 Issue.
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