Warren Buffett helps Interest Rates

Bond yields moved sharply higher today after news that Warren Buffett’s firm Berkshire Hathaway has offered to assume liability for the municipal bonds of troubled bond insurers. US Treasuries have been a safe haven for investors since last summer when the credit and mortgage markets began to experience serious setbacks. So any news, like today’s [...]

Municipal Bond Yields (non-taxable) vs Treasury Yields (taxable)

A strong global surge into United States Treasuries has pushed yields on T-Bills, T-Notes, and T-Bonds lower and lower with a bottom not yet in sight. The same buying surge has not been witnessed in the Municipal Bond market and as shown below yields are higher at comparable terms than Treasuries.Municipal Bond Averages vs U.S. [...]

10-year Treasury Yield and Odds of Recession

The chart of the 10-year U.S. Treasury Bond below shows that the yield has not broken below 4.40% for over one year.

Market watchers now believe that the 4.40% could be broken as the economy is showing inflation under control and longer term interest rates seem less likely to increase significantly. The ongoing flight-to-quality to [...]

Short Term U.S. Treasury Yields Fall Crazily

In only five days the yield on the 1-month Treasury Bill has fallen from 4.18% to 2.47% as an enormous amount of money has poured into the very shortest U.S. Treasury terms available.
8/1/2007
1-month T-Bill - 5.05% yield3-month T-Bill - 4.89% yield6-month T-Bill - 4.96% yield
8/20/2007
1-month T-Bill - 2.47% yield3-month T-Bill - 3.12% yield6-month T-Bill - [...]

INTEREST RATE FORECAST

This week the Federal Reserve meets and for the first time in over two years Fed watchers are discussing the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) lowering short term interest rates as a realistic possibility. The Chicago Board of Trade offers futures contracts on the 30-day Federal Funds Rate (ZQ) with expirations from August 2007 to [...]

Treasury Yield Curve Flattening Again

A rally in mid-term and longer-term U.S. Treasuries in July has dropped yields between 10 and 20 basis points on maturities from 2 years to 30 years.
Current US Treasury Yields vs Yields from last month:
3 Month 4.85% vs 4.63% 6 Month 4.84% vs 4.77% 2 Year 4.73% vs 4.87% 3 Year 4.72% vs 4.91% 5 [...]