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Watching Bonds While Buying Commodities

05/27/09 Baltimore, Maryland “We believe the action in the bond market is the key to understanding the move in commodity and stock prices,” adds Dan Denning. “What you see in the charts below is the widest spread between 10-year and 2-year notes since 2003.

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“The yield curve is getting steeper. Investors are charging the U.S. more to loan to it long term while they seem to be happy to park cash in shorter-term maturities, even if the real yield is negligible.

“The current spread between 10-years and 2-years is 263 basis points (2.63%). It blew out to 274 basis points in 2003. That was about the same time that Alan Greenspan’s Fed slashed rates to 1% and kept them there to kick off the leveraged bull market in all asset classes across the globe. Global synchronized boom.

“The Fed doesn’t have that flexibility today, of course. U.S. short-term rates (the Fed funds rate) are already being held in a range between 0-0.25%. If the central bank wants to try to bring 10-year rates down, it’s going to have to buy more bonds directly. And if it does so by creating more money, we reckon it puts more bullish pressure under gold, oil and copper prices.”

Author Image for Ian Mathias

Ian Mathias

Ian Mathias is managing editor of The 5 Min. Forecast.  We discovered Ian working as a full time rock climbing guide and writing on the side. As it turns out, markets and global economics can be extreme too… at least enough to keep him around. Since working for Agora Financial, respected media outlets including Forbes.com, the Associated Press, Yahoo, and MSN Money have syndicated his writing. He received his BA from Loyola College in Maryland and is currently studying writing at the graduate level.

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One Response

  1. tony bonn said

    people people people….djia and tnx sold off today….tnx is up almost 6% – mortgage rates are going through the roof….the implosion has begun….stocks have peaked and will not “correct” – they will go into free fall….that imbecilic rise yesterday from an increase in consumer confidence was stupid money chasing a sneeze….

    on May 27, 2009.

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