Bonds In Conversation : A Moment Of Silence
A moment of silence. An ex colleague of mine had passed away 2 days ago. She was only 35 and succumbed to cancer.
Perhaps it is not possible to attribute it to the stress of the job but some of us have come quite close to buckling under the immense pressure of the markets when at work.
It has been a jolly week with the markets taking the Taper news in stride and rallying heartily with holiday cheer even as regulators find more evidence of widespread manipulation in the fx world, the real threat of secular stagnation facing the markets that most economists are choosing to ignore in their outlooks and the name Larry Summers causes analysts to tense up in front of their clients.
EM markets are fast losing their shine but have not given up their fight even as the EM basket of currencies took a tumble after the FOMC on Wed.
“The developing world is suffering from more credit rating downgrades than promotions for the first time since the financial crisis..” www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3faa6010-6425-11e3-
The EM bond index is, however, holding strong as the 10Y US treasury yield failed to break the dreaded 3% threshold and the S&P weeklies are showing a plateau.
10Y UST YIELD CHART
MORNINGSTAR EM CREDIT INDEX 5Y CHART
S&P 500 INDEX WEEKLY CHART
The Eurozone suffered a credit downgrade today out of the S&P, its rating cut to AA+ with its outlook stable, probably nothing to do with the fact that Latvia will be adopting the EURO on the first day of 2014.
Onshore in Singapore, we had a good outcome on the FNN bond saga with bond holders placated.
It was reported in Bloomberg that yields on Singapore-dollar corporate bonds averaged 2.94% this year. That’s the lowest in a decade after 2.68% in 2012. A good portion of bonds issued in 2012 are now under water, like many of the issues that came out this year. I suspect bond holders are still sitting content, too busy with their Christmas shopping with carparks in Orchard Road run on a full house, like today. No one is really interested in taking stock of their portfolios as yet.
Leaving you with the prices and a little prayer for my ex colleague who will not see Christmas on earth this year, having gone to a place where yields do not matter anymore.
USD bonds listed in Singapore and Hong Kong.
SGD 2013 New Issues
2012 SGD Bond Issues
And Wishing Everyone A Happy Holiday !
