Did the tide turn for US assets last week? For months, US Treasury bond prices have fallen, taking the dollar with them. The explanation was clear. Investors believed disaster had been averted. That meant taking greater risks once more and selling the secure US Treasury bonds bought during the panic.
But the rise in bond yields and fall of the dollar took on new momentum last week, even as stock markets fell back. The 10-year bond yield hit 3.45 per cent, a six-month high, while the dollar hit a five-month low.
According to RBC, there were only 18 days in the past 20 years when the 10-year Treasury rose by 6 basis points or more, the dollar trade-weighted index fell 0.5 per cent or more and the S&P 500 fell more than 1.2 per cent. None of them came from 2003 to 2008. But this happened last Thursday.