Metals sold off yesterday because of bond yields
In a recent post, I showed the strong correlation between inverted real bond yields and gold and silver:
The hot inflation data yesterday and today drove nominal bond yields sharply higher. Bond investors demand higher yields when inflation is hot, which is why nominal yields rose. The rise in nominal yields broke a trend line. Here is the trend line break on the nominal 10-year yield:
The trend line break suggests it might be a good time to be short on treasury bond funds like VGLT, since bond prices fall as nominal yields rise-- however, keep reading, because as I'll note later in the post, you've got to beware of Fed yield curve control.
The picture for real yields is a little more complicated. The real yields chart above only shows data up to August 10, because the chart lags a couple days. Real yield is calculated by subtracting 10-year breakeven inflation from 10-year nominal yield. FRED's 10-year breakeven inflation rate was priced at 1.63% as of last update yesterday:
However, the new CPI number implies an annualized inflation rate in the neighborhood of 6.0 - 7.5% this year. Obviously no one expects that to persist for 10 years, but the 10-year breakeven inflation rate is bound to keep creeping upward after this hot CPI read. The question is whether it will move upward faster than nominal bond yields. If so, then real yields will continue to fall. If not, then real yields will start to rise.
It's possible, as a recent Seeking Alpha article argued, that the Fed is already exercising yield curve control to keep nominal 10-year yields in the range of 0.6-0.7%. If so, then we should expect nominal yields to stabilize here rather than to keep moving upward. If nominal yields do stabilize, then the rising 10-year breakeven inflation rate should continue to drive real yields lower and gold and silver higher.
seekingalpha.com/art...olicy-for-treasuries
However, the trend line break in nominal yields suggests that if the Fed doesn't exert yield curve control, then we might see rising nominal yields outpace 10-year breakeven inflation for a little while, driving gold and silver lower. The next three or four days of real yields data should provide an important signal for where real yields and metals go from here. My best guess is that metals will bounce for at least the next day or two, and then we'll see from there.
The hot inflation data yesterday and today drove nominal bond yields sharply higher. Bond investors demand higher yields when inflation is hot, which is why nominal yields rose. The rise in nominal yields broke a trend line. Here is the trend line break on the nominal 10-year yield:
The trend line break suggests it might be a good time to be short on treasury bond funds like VGLT, since bond prices fall as nominal yields rise-- however, keep reading, because as I'll note later in the post, you've got to beware of Fed yield curve control.
The picture for real yields is a little more complicated. The real yields chart above only shows data up to August 10, because the chart lags a couple days. Real yield is calculated by subtracting 10-year breakeven inflation from 10-year nominal yield. FRED's 10-year breakeven inflation rate was priced at 1.63% as of last update yesterday:
However, the new CPI number implies an annualized inflation rate in the neighborhood of 6.0 - 7.5% this year. Obviously no one expects that to persist for 10 years, but the 10-year breakeven inflation rate is bound to keep creeping upward after this hot CPI read. The question is whether it will move upward faster than nominal bond yields. If so, then real yields will continue to fall. If not, then real yields will start to rise.
It's possible, as a recent Seeking Alpha article argued, that the Fed is already exercising yield curve control to keep nominal 10-year yields in the range of 0.6-0.7%. If so, then we should expect nominal yields to stabilize here rather than to keep moving upward. If nominal yields do stabilize, then the rising 10-year breakeven inflation rate should continue to drive real yields lower and gold and silver higher.
seekingalpha.com/art...olicy-for-treasuries
However, the trend line break in nominal yields suggests that if the Fed doesn't exert yield curve control, then we might see rising nominal yields outpace 10-year breakeven inflation for a little while, driving gold and silver lower. The next three or four days of real yields data should provide an important signal for where real yields and metals go from here. My best guess is that metals will bounce for at least the next day or two, and then we'll see from there.
Comment:
Real yield for August 11 was -.99%, up three basis points from the previous day and nine basis points off the August 6 low. However, inflation expectation for August 12 rose four basis points from the previous day, while nominal yield rose only one basis point, which means net real yield should be down about three basis points for August 12 when they post the number tomorrow. Presumably that's why gold is up today even though nominal yields are also up today (August 13). As nominal yields approach a resistance zone at 0.7-0.73, we may see falling real yields and a little rally in metals for a few days.
Comment:
Both nominal yields and real yields rallied through Friday, August 13. We ended the week at a real yield of -.96% and a nominal yield of -.71%. The move in yields is bearish for gold, but now comes the test: will the Fed exercise soft yield curve control by buying more bonds to push yields down? Or will it allow the bond yield rally to continue?
