One of the bond market’s most reliable gauges of impending U.S. recessions plunged further below zero into triple-digit negative territory on Tuesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell point...
Tag: Money Markets
Invest right now in the stock market? Why bother when cash could be king
The harder question for investors nearly a year into the Federal Reserve’s inflation fight is whether buying the dip in stocks is wise, or earning a cool 5% yield on safe-haven Treasury bills, a cash ...
Here come the 5% CDs
Don’t touch that dial. If you’re looking for certificates of deposit, the interest rates on offer should be—here’s hoping—heading higher following the latest inflation numbers out Tuesday morning. Rea...
Treasury yields jump after surge in U.S. job growth
Treasury yields jumped Friday, erasing what had been weekly declines for 2- and 10-year notes, after a much stronger-than-expected U.S. January jobs report clouded investor expectations for the Federa...
Cash is no longer trash, says Dalio, who calls it more attractive than stocks and bonds
“‘Cash used to be trashy. Cash is pretty attractive now. It’s attractive in relation to bonds. It’s actually attractive in relation to stocks.’” Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio no longer thin...
I-bond strategies: Answers to your questions about Series I bonds
Most people are still new to investing in I-bonds, and so it’s not surprising that they have a lot of questions about the basics. As a new year begins, the situation is even more complicated by strate...
Treasury yields post record rise in worst year ‘within any of our lifetimes’ for bond investors
Treasury yields moved mostly higher in a holiday-shortened session Friday, capping a brutal, record-breaking bond-market selloff in 2022. Trading in U.S. fixed-income markets closed an hour early at 2...
Treasury Bills Are In Demand at Auction on Thursday
Text size The Federal Open Market Committee is set to gather on Dec. 13 and 14 to weigh another increase in short-term interest rates. Stefani Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images Treasury bills garnered c...
JPMorgan looks at ‘Armageddon scenario’ of Fed jacking rates up to 6.5%. Its conclusion may come as a surprise.
The market’s expectation is that the Federal Reserve will keep lifting its policy interest rate until it brings it to 5% before pausing for some time. But it’s possible that the Fed could decide that ...
Most deeply inverted Treasury curve in more than 4 decades has one upbeat takeaway for investors
One of the bond market’s most reliable indicators of impending U.S. recessions is pointed in a pretty pessimistic direction right now, but contains at least one optimistic message: The Federal Reserve...
Did Bullard undershoot? Stifel economists say fed funds rate may need to go to 8% or even 9%.
A day after a Federal Reserve official’s market-moving admission that interest rates may need to go to as high as 7%, analysts came up with an even more surprising conclusion: that 7% still won’t be h...
Opinion: The floodgates are open for grandparents to super-size college savings for grandkids
If you’re a grandparent looking to save the day by helping your grandchildren pay for college, take a second look at a tax-advantaged 529 college savings plan before the end of the year. Rule changes ...
Opinion: There’s a rush to buy I-bonds to lock in a high yield, but there may be an even better deal next week
It’s hard to imagine that there could be a better deal for parking up to $10,000 in savings than Series I bonds, at this very moment. The 9.62% yield is top-notch, and you can count the hours before i...
This Isn’t the Bottom and Recession Isn’t Priced In, Goldman Says
Markets haven’t priced in a recession, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs Equities and credit markets are pricing in a lower risk of recession than rates and currency traders, though no asset clas...
‘Fragile’ Treasury market is at risk of ‘large scale forced selling’ or surprise that leads to breakdown, BofA says
The world’s deepest and most liquid fixed-income market is in big, big trouble. For months, traders, academics, and other analysts have fretted that the $23.7 trillion Treasurys market might be the so...
Opinion: $22 billion in I-bond sales can’t be wrong. Why you may want to buy them even when their rate resets soon
I-bonds’ sky-high interest rate is poised to fall to 6.48% when they reset next month, according to industry experts. Still, that would be the third-highest level since they were sold in 1998. Though ...
Opinion: How you can save $60k for a home down payment without risk or waiting forever
Yes, starting from zero and trying to save a bit each month will take a while. To put together that princely sum, you’d have to save $500 a month for around nine years in a high-interest savings accou...
Opinion: Your off-ramp for I-bonds is coming up soon if you bought the securities for their juicy 9.6% yield
You can hold on to Series I bonds for 30 years, but if you jumped in when the interest rate skyrocketed to 9.62%, you might be looking for an off-ramp well before then. If you were attracted primarily...
Brace yourselves, the Fed is about to inflict ‘some pain’ to fight inflation — here’s how to prepare your wallet and portfolio
The Fed is ready to bring the pain. Are you prepared? Weeks ago, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell cautioned there would be “some pain to households and businesses” as the central bank jacks up inte...
Fed approves third large interest rate hike and signals more before year-end
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday stepped up its aggressive fight against high inflation by agreeing to the third straight super-sized increase in interest rates and signaling more big hikes before the...
This Is a Good Time to Buy Short-Term Bonds
Until recently, short-term bonds were a yield wasteland: A two-year Treasury note yielded 0.21% a year ago and just 1% in January. Today, the yield is over 3.8% and could soon touch 4%, thanks in good...
Cash Is No Longer Trash. T-Bill Yields Near 4%.
Text size After years of yielding near zero, cash is suddenly a better investment. Eva Hambach/AFP via Getty Images Cash is no longer trash. For the first time in 15 years, investors can get nearly 4%...
Any doubt Fed will raise rates by 75 basis points next week is gone after hot U.S. inflation data
Any doubt that the Federal Reserve will raise its its benchmark interest rate by 0.75 percentage point next week is gone, economists said, following the hot U.S. consumer price inflation data for Augu...
Why the ECB’s jumbo rate hike isn’t helping the beaten-down euro
The European Central Bank went big on Thursday, delivering a historically outsize 75 basis-point interest rate increase in its effort to get a grip on record inflation. Yet the euro, after a brief bou...
The Other Doomsday Scenario Looming Over Markets
By James Mackintosh Sept. 3, 2022 10:00 am ET Listen to article (2 minutes) Think inflation is the biggest threat to your investments? Perhaps not: One fund manager that successfully navigated the pas...
Shrinking the Fed’s balance sheet sheet is not likely to be a benign process, new Jackson Hole study warns
“If the past repeats, the shrinking of the central bank’s balance sheet is not likely to be an entirely benign process and will require careful monitoring of the banking sector’s on-and off-balance sh...
Disappointing U.S. data has traders considering possibility of a half-point Fed rate hike in September
In the blink of an eye on Tuesday, the U.S. bond market’s focus shifted back toward fears of an unexpectedly sharp economic slowdown and away from persistently high inflation over the bulk of the trad...
Warren Buffett Loves T-Bills. You Should Consider Them.
Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has $75 billion in Treasury bills. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images Text size Warren Buffett parks most of Berkshire Hathaway’s cash in ultra-safe...
Tempted to chase fat yields in money market accounts? Why it might not pay to switch.
The yield chase is on. After more than two years of historically low interest rates, savers are rediscovering that they can earn money on their money by letting it sit. During the pandemic, many saver...