Ed Yardeni on bonds…

Dr. Ed has a nice piece on bonds doing the unexpected, here…

“Last year, I surmised that the bond yield might be “tethered” to the near-zero yields for comparable Japanese government bonds in Japan and bunds in Germany (Fig. 6). I also argued that based on my 40 years’ experience in our business, I’ve never found that supply-vs-demand analysis helped much in forecasting bond yields. It’s always been about actual inflation, expected inflation, and how the Fed was likely to respond to both. The most recent bond rally was mostly driven by a drop in the expected inflation rate embodied in the yield spread between the 10-year Treasury bond and the comparable TIPS (Fig. 7). The spread dropped 30bps since October 9, 2018 through Wednesday…

So do federal deficits matter to the bond market? Apparently not. It’s all about inflation. If deficits boost inflation, then they will matter, as I see it.”