Interest Rates

Over the weekend, the BIS came with a curious number on the losses, as quoted by Reuters: The BIS said in its annual report that a rise in bond yields of 3 percentage points across the maturity spectrum would inflict losses on U. S. bond investors – excluding the Federal Reserve – of more than $1 trillion, or 8% of U. S. gross domestic product. Markets have simply been undead for the past 5 years – or so -, as long as central banks have issued stimulus. Moreover, in the $82 trillion or so global bond markets, a $1 trillion loss looks very low in comparison, certainly when you see the BIS claim that France, Italy, Japan and Britain can see their bonds lose a third of their value. Today's stimulus is self-defeating simply because it is unleashed in a toxic financial environment, ridden with hidden debt. [.. ] … it can only function when debts are properly restructured, defaulted upon, their holders bankrupted where applicable. Signs of concern about high-flying assets like emerging markets can be seen in the options market, where more than 1. 35 million contracts in the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets exchange-traded fund traded on Thursday – 82% of which were put options, generally used to protect against losses.