When interest rates rise, bonds’ market values decline. Rising yields mean rising borrowing costs for companies, which can hurt their share prices. But it also makes bonds more attractive to income-seeking investors, which can cause stocks to move lower.
The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes
BX:TMUBMUSD10Y
was 4.79% Friday afternoon, rising from 4.27% a month earlier. For the same period, the S&P 500
SPX
was down 4.5% with dividends reinvested.
So what can investors do if they are worried about capital preservation, but still want to participate if the stock market settles down and rallies again? In this week’s ETF Wrap, Isabel Wang explains how you can use exchange-traded funds to protect yourself completely from market-price declines, while still having the potential to benefit from a rising stock market.
Explaining the brutal bond market
Such a clear move for longer-term interest rates is resulting from several factors, including concerns about stubborn high inflation (with strong employment data), government borrowings and turmoil in Washington. These articles cover various angles behind the sharp declines for bond prices:
Higher interest rates aren’t bad for everyone
Despite the flurry of gloomy headlines, rising interest rates aren’t bad for everyone. If you are shopping now for higher yields, Andrew Keshner has some advice for you on laddering maturities to keep all of your money working for you as you cut risk.
The stock market’s complicated relationship with bonds
William Watts interviews Ed Clissold, an analyst with Ned Davis Research, who compares the recent simultaneous decline for stocks and bonds to the events of previous economic and interest-rate cycles and paints two scenarios for the action from here.
And here’s a look at how interest rate moves affect pockets of the stock market.
Despite the recent pullback for stocks, the S&P 500 is still up 12.3% for 2023, with dividends reinvested. But the rally hasn’t been broad-based, as Joseph Adinolfi explains. And he points to another (literally) technical problem for the stock market.
Maybe it is time to stop worrying and start buying stocks
Michael Brush calls the stock market’s reaction to soaring bond yields “a textbook contrarian buy signal.”
Mark Hulbert points to investors illusory thinking as a big reason for the stock market’s decline, and predicts sentiment will turn around soon.
Lawrence G. McMillan: The Stock market is oversold — but investors don’t believe it yet
Is a big oil merger coming or not?
Late on Thursday, Exxon Mobil Corp.
XOM,
was close to offering $60 billion to acquire Pioneer Natural Resources Co.
PXD,
according to a Wall Street Journal report. Shares of several of the target company’s peers in the U.S. shale oil patch rallied on the news.
A $60 billion takeout price would be a 20% premium to Pioneer’s value at Thursday’s close, and the target company’s stock rose 10% on Friday. So the first question for investors is how likely would it be for such a merger to be completed, considering how closely the Federal Trade Commission has been scrutinizing such deals? This time around, FTC Chair Lina Kahn may be more likely to give her blessing, as Chris Matthews reports.
More for investors: These oil stocks are looking cheap as Exxon Mobil reportedly mulls a bid for Pioneer
Planning ahead for a loved one’s care
Beth Pinsker writes the Fix My Portfolio column. This week she helps a reader whose mother suffers from dementia, but who also had worked hard to set up her finances to cover her care for a long time. The son believes the money will run out in about 10 years, and the question is how the family can plan for to pay for care when that time comes.
Let’s keep space clean
Take a guess — which company is the first one to be fined for littering in space? This one, as Ciara Linnane reports.
And here is more space news, reported by James Rogers:
- Amazon launches test satellites in Project Kuiper space-broadband push
- Virgin Galactic’s stock rises as it completes Galactic 04 mission, its fifth spaceflight in five months
A golden glow, but gold may not be best
Quentin Fottrell — the Moneyist — handles some difficult family money crises when answering readers’ questions, but this time around the “problem” is a good one to have. A mother writes that her son was given $35,000 in gold. The question is, should the money be kept in gold or invested for growth?
Thornier problems for the Moneyist:
- My uncle persuaded my ailing grandmother to cut everyone else out of the family trust. Do we have a case against him?
- ‘Buy a yacht,’ he told me. My fiancé, 67, is cutting his children out of his will — and leaving everything to me. Should I be suspicious?
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