Regardless of duration, the following bond charts present an identical tactical approach.
Two key themes dominate these trade setups: entry points designated by price reclaiming the February 2024 lows and initial targets set at the December 2023 highs.
Of course, there’s always an exception…
Check out the US 30-year T-bond futures:
Like the following charts, we can measure our risk at a key pivot low from late February.
Commodities are outperforming stocks and bonds. Interest rates are rising worldwide, and investors are anticipating increased inflationary pressures—not multiple rate cuts—this year.
In fact, inflation expectations are reaching levels not seen since June 2022…
Check out the Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities ETF $TIP vs. the nominal US Treasury Bond ETF $IEF ratio zoomed out twenty years:
Monster base. But I don’t think of this ratio in those terms. Instead, I use it to gauge investors’ desire for inflation protection.
Perhaps the near-term rise in rates makes it difficult to grasp, but the US benchmark yield is actually chopping within a broader corrective phase.
Before we dive into the charts, I want to make two things clear:
One, I am not an Elliottician or an Elliott Wave specialist on any level. And two, if you give five Elliotticians the same chart, you’re likely to get five different wave counts.
Nevertheless, my journey to earning the CMT designation exposed me to the Elliott Theory, and I find it prudent when examining the US 10-year yield.
Everyone is obsessing over the Fed’s rate cut plans. Meanwhile, interest rates are climbing to their highest level since early December.
Instead of following Fed gossip and what-ifs, focus on what is: Yields continue to creep higher as inflationary assets rip.
Check out our Global Benchmark Rate Composite, an equal-weight basket of Developed Market 10-year yields (Germany, UK, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Japan, Australia, and the US):
Our global composite is holding well above the lower bounds of a yearlong range, catching toward the underside of a flat 200-day moving average.
Yields on sovereign debt show no signs of an imminent collapse.
Three rate cuts remain the base case for 2024. Everyone had this scenario penciled in, including the bond market.
The US benchmark yield is holding at the same levels as last month. T-bonds are catching a modest bid. And bonds are…well, boring.
Perhaps it’s not an ideal scenario for bond bears, but stock market bulls are welcoming the muted response…
The Bond Market Volatility Index $MOVE—the credit market’s equivalent to the VIX—is registering its lowest reading since spring 2022.
The last time the MOVE hit these levels, the Fed had yet to embark on its current hiking cycle. (We all know what followed—an epic downturn for bonds and stocks.)
Whenever a fellow parent asks what I do, I tell them I comment on interest rates.
I’m not involved in the semiconductor industry or the AI revolution. I don’t rob community banks (a personal favorite, despite mixed reactions). And I certainly do not analyze fixed-income, forex, and commodity markets (that’s a show-stopper).
The only thing people want to know these days – whether they’re navigating Wall St. or Main St. – is where rates are headed.
But no one seems to be listening to the one person who has a direct impact on the direction of US Treasury yields…
The FOMC stuck to its script this week, kicking the can and keeping rates steady.
Everyone was expecting the news. But the market wasn’t expecting Fed Chairman Jerome Powell (the man, the myth, the legend) to completely dash its hopes of a March cut.
Strangely enough, rates continue to fall on the news – even as markets adjust to the possibility of the initial rate cut now coming in May.
Before you run out to buy US treasury bonds, check out the overlay chart of the US 2- and 30-year yields:
There’s a big difference.
The 2-year yield is churning sideways, reflecting the market’s expectations of the FOMC’s next move – nothing in the foreseeable future.
