Global bond investors fear more declines after vicious quarterly sell-off

NEW YORK – Fiscal concerns and worries over a prolonged period of elevated interest rates sent government bonds tumbling in the third quarter, and some investors believe more weakness is in store.

The United States and German government bond yields were set to end September with their biggest quarterly rises in a year, disappointing fund managers who were hoping for relief from the historic losses bonds suffered in 2022, when the US Federal Reserve and other central banks raised interest rates to contain surging inflation.

While bond yields – which move inversely to prices – appeared to be topping out earlier in 2023, renewed hawkishness from central banks has sent them soaring again in recent weeks.

In the US, for example, benchmark 10-year Treasury yields are now hovering around 16-year highs at 4.55 per cent, with some investors saying they could rise to 5 per cent – a level not seen since 2007. Treasuries are on track to post their third straight annual loss, an event without precedence in US history, according to Bank of America Global Research.

With US Treasury yields leading the rise, global currencies are reeling as the US dollar rallies.

“The bias is finally being absorbed by the marketplace that rates will remain higher for longer,” said Greg Peters, co-chief investment officer at PGIM Fixed Income.

Monetary policy expectations have been a key driver: the Fed last week surprised investors with their hawkish projections for rates, which show borrowing costs remaining around current levels throughout most of 2024.

Investors have had to readjust swiftly, with traders now betting the Fed’s policy rate, currently at 5.25 per cent-5.5 per cent, will be down to 4.8 per cent by the end of 2024, much higher than the 4.3 per cent they foresaw at the end of August.

Similarly, investors have pushed back expectations of European Central Bank (ECB) rate cuts as policymakers have stuck to their message to keep rates high for longer. Money markets pricing suggests traders see the ECB’s deposit rate at around 3.5 per cent by the end of 2024, up from around 3.25 per cent at end-August.

New drivers

Bond prices are also being swayed by additional catalysts that have become more prominent in recent weeks, investors said.

Among them are fiscal concerns centred around the US, where the budget deficit has soared and a credit downgrade by ratings firm Fitch has unnerved some investors. At the same time, the Fed is progressing with “quantitative tightening” – a reversal of the massive central bank bond purchases undertaken to support markets in 2020.

As a result, “yields will rise until investors believe that longer-dated bonds are compensating them for the supply that we know is coming”, said Mr Mike Riddell, senior portfolio manager at Allianz Global Investors.

The jump in oil prices, which are nearing US$100 (S$136) a barrel and up 2 per cent so far this quarter, is another key risk that could keep upward pressure on inflation, and therefore bond yields.

Yields on the benchmark 10-year Treasury are up nearly 76 basis points so far this quarter, on track for their largest quarterly rise in a year.

Germany’s 10-year yield, the benchmark for the euro zone, is up 52 basis points to 2.9 per cent, the biggest quarterly jump in a year.

How high?

In addition to slamming bond investors, the rise in yields has hurt stocks, offering investment competition to equities while also raising the cost of borrowing for corporations and households.

The S&P 500 index is down 3.4 per cent this quarter, on track for its worst fall in a year, though it is up 11.3 per cent year-to-date. Europe’s Stoxx 600, meanwhile, has advanced 5.6 per cent in 2023 but lost 2.9 per cent in the last three months.

Investors have been revising their views for how high yields can go. Strategists at BofA Global Research said “sticky” inflation could push the US 10-year yield to 5 per cent, a call echoed by ING which also said Germany’s 10-year yield could see 3 per cent.

Noah Wise, a portfolio manager at Allspring Investments, believes yields will ease in December, when investors have a clearer view of the Fed’s monetary policy trajectory.

“When investors see the Fed is likely to stay on the sidelines, that will be a less frightening market to get involved in,” he said. REUTERS