High-yield debt hasn’t blown out relative to Treasuries. Regardless, the largest markets in the world are buckling under pressure.
You have to look outside the US and beyond high-yield corporate bonds to see the stress. Here are three cautionary data points to consider: European sovereign spreads, US bond market volatility, and the steep decline in investment-grade bonds.
When you weigh the evidence, it’s clear risks are rising for US markets.
Let’s look at the charts!
First, here's a look at European sovereign spreads:
With Bonds getting destroyed this year, it's put pressure on growth stocks, because of their long-duration characteristics.
As rates rise, it puts a lot of pressure on growth stocks. That's why historically the more Value oriented stocks and sectors tend to outperform when rates are rising.
When rates are falling that's when growth stocks usually thrive the most.
We all know this. The data is free.
BUT, a funny thing has happened over the last few months.
With bonds continuing to collapse and breaking those summer lows, the Nasdaq has been outperforming the S&P500.
Interest rates have resumed their ascent following a brief summer pause. And, in recent weeks, their climb has accelerated.
Aside from lower bond prices, what do higher rates mean for other assets, such as stocks and commodities?
It might seem like a simple question. But its relevance is undeniable given the current market conditions.
We’ve been vocal about the cyclical areas of the market that benefit most from a rising rate environment – think commodities, energy, materials, and banks. We’ve put out plenty of trade ideas in those areas.
After Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s remarks this morning, the market is pricing in an 86% chance of a 75-basis-point hike later this month.
Meanwhile, rates continue to accelerate at the short end of the curve. That’s been the story for months now.
But will the middle and long end of the curve head higher as well?
According to the two-year US Treasury yield, the answer is a resounding "yes!"
Short-duration rates offer plenty of valuable, leading information regarding US Treasury yields.
We’ve leaned on the five-year yield throughout the current cycle as an early indication of the direction of the 10- and 30-year. It’s proved a beneficial practice.
Today, we’re going to drop it down a notch, extending the same logic to the two-year yield.
Here’s a quad-pane chart of the two-, five-, 10-, and 30-year US Treasury yields:
Heading into Q3, we wanted to play a mean-reversion bounce in US treasury bonds. A long list of reasons supported this position:
US Treasuries experienced their worst H1 in history (or close to it).
Bonds were finding support at their previous-cycle lows from 2018.
Commodities and inflation expectations peaked earlier in the spring.
Assets that benefit from rising rates (financials) were making fresh lows.
Global yields were pulling back.
And, quite frankly, our risk was well-defined. We can’t ask for much more. For us, the greater risk was not taking a swing at this trade in the event bonds ripped higher…
Two months later, bonds across the curve are taking out their 2018 lows. The market has proven our mean-reversion thesis wrong. But we can live that because we manage risk responsibly.
It’s the most important part of playing this game.
Easily, the second-most important is to remain flexible.
Identifying trends is one of the most important jobs of a market technician. Regardless of our time horizon, we have to understand the general direction the market is taking.
It sounds simple, but it’s the foundation of any market thesis.
Once we have the underlying trend nailed down, we can focus on the areas of the market we want to exploit and pinpoint the best tools and strategies to do so.
When I think of the most critical trends to date, my mind immediately goes to interest rates. Rising rates and inflation have been the key drivers for two years now.
Despite some corrective action in recent months, the bond market has been reminding us that we’re still in a rising-rate environment.
Let’s take a look.
First, we have an overlay chart of the US 10-year breakeven inflation rate and the US 10-year yield: