BTC iShares 3-7 Year Treasury Bond ETF

The US Treasury auctioned 30-year TIPS (VIPSX)(LTPZ) worth $5 billion on June 22.

The negative interest policy of the central banks is casting government bonds as a futile choice for investors compared to stocks and gold. As a result, bond prices dipped and yields started rising.

In a speech at the 2017 Herbert Stein Memorial Lecture, Fed Chair Janet Yellen shared her thoughts on monetary policy for the future and discussed whether there will be any role for unconventional policy again.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen, in her speech at the 2017 Herbert Stein Memorial Lecture, offered some more insight into the Fed’s balance sheet reducing strategy.

Atlanta Federal Reserve president and CEO, Raphael Bostic, recently spoke at a conference about the Fed’s balance sheet normalization program.

The September meeting minutes indicated that the members underscored that the reduction in the Fed’s balance sheet would be gradual.

The announcement of the GOP tax reform plan added to the pressure on bond markets.

In this series, we’ll analyze each component of the Conference Board Leading Economic Index and understand its implications for the consumer discretionary (XLY), industrial (XLI), and housing (XHB) sectors and the overall market (SPY).

The Fed’s balance sheet has $4.4 trillion in bond market securities, and it intends not to reinvest a small portion of the maturing securities every month.

In the September 20 meeting, FOMC (US Federal Open Market Committee) finally announced the start date of its balance sheet unwinding program.

The bond markets are the most impacted asset class by any changes to the Federal interest rates.

In its efforts to revive the US economy from the Great Recession, the US Fed started purchasing US government-backed securities in 2008.

The key reason for the debt ceiling deal was to approve aid to Hurricane Harvey victims. A US government shutdown could have adversely impacted relief operations.

Stanley Fisher, vice chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, has shared his views on low interest rates and some solutions to get rates back to normal levels.

The Fed, in its efforts to normalize policy, announced that it is starting the balance sheet unwinding program soon.

The US debt-to-GDP ratio now stands at 106.1%, which means that the total US debt is more than the annual US GDP.

In its June meeting, FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) members detailed plans to shrink the $4.5 trillion balance sheet.

After the July FOMC meeting statement was released, market participants came to believe that the Fed would begin the process of balance sheet normalization soon.

In her post-meeting press conference, Janet Yellen warned that the Fed could implement its balance sheet unwinding process soon if the economy continues to perform as expected.

US Treasuries (SCHO) rallied all through the previous week supported by heavy safe-haven inflows into US bonds.

US bond markets are trading on the expectation of an interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve in June 2017. Last week, bond yields extended their slides.

The credibility of the Federal Reserve was a concern raised by some policymakers at the September FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) meeting.

The yield on US ten-year Treasury securities fell below the 1.6% mark for the first time on September 26, 2016 due to a rise in demand.

Historically, it seems that fallen angels generally perform well across interest rate environments.

In his latest monthly investment outlook for June 2016, bond market veteran Bill Gross talked about “carry” in financial markets.