Have corporate bonds bottomed?
The Corporate bond market got extremely oversold and it bounced without the Fed having to pivot. Essentially the market got to 2013-2018 levels, and bounced nicely at the old support. But we still don't know whether the bottom is in or now, as there are more questions that need to be answered, like: Does the market expect the Fed to reverse course soon? Does the market think the bottom is in for bond yields? Does it think inflation has peaked?
In my opinion the market did the tightening itself without the Fed. The Fed did a mistake for not raising rates and ending QE faster, however they were right on their approach to go slowly, as one way or another inflation would slow down. By inflation slowing down down I don't mean that prices will go down, just that prices will go up a lot less than they did over the last 1-2 years. At the same time I do believe that as inflation comes down, it is possible that we get to see the Fed say that they will pause their hikes after raising them to around 2% and will let their balance sheet roll off on its own.
Essentially higher interest rates, lower asset prices, tight fiscal and monetary policy, and already high energy prices are crushing demand. The Fed was/is behind the curve, but as the curve seems to be now moving to the direction of the Fed. To a large extend their objective has been achieved, as this correction was similar to the 2018 correction, only that this time around the correction was welcomed when back then it wasn't.
Now I don't really think the bottom is in for corporate bonds, however I also don't think they are going to roll over very quickly. If the food & energy crisis gets worse, I have no doubt that these will get crushed. It just seems that in the short-medium term things will cool down a bit and part of them Fed's goals have been achieved. The US economy remains fairly strong and its corporations are in a fairly good shape, despite everything that has been going in the world over the last few years.
Having said all that I don't want to be a buyer of HYG at 80. At those levels I think it is better to short and aim for 77-78, and then if the price action looks decent, go long at those levels. The bounce is too sharp for it to have legs to go higher immediately. I'd expect more chop in the 75-81 area before the market decides whether it is going to go higher or lower.
In my opinion the market did the tightening itself without the Fed. The Fed did a mistake for not raising rates and ending QE faster, however they were right on their approach to go slowly, as one way or another inflation would slow down. By inflation slowing down down I don't mean that prices will go down, just that prices will go up a lot less than they did over the last 1-2 years. At the same time I do believe that as inflation comes down, it is possible that we get to see the Fed say that they will pause their hikes after raising them to around 2% and will let their balance sheet roll off on its own.
Essentially higher interest rates, lower asset prices, tight fiscal and monetary policy, and already high energy prices are crushing demand. The Fed was/is behind the curve, but as the curve seems to be now moving to the direction of the Fed. To a large extend their objective has been achieved, as this correction was similar to the 2018 correction, only that this time around the correction was welcomed when back then it wasn't.
Now I don't really think the bottom is in for corporate bonds, however I also don't think they are going to roll over very quickly. If the food & energy crisis gets worse, I have no doubt that these will get crushed. It just seems that in the short-medium term things will cool down a bit and part of them Fed's goals have been achieved. The US economy remains fairly strong and its corporations are in a fairly good shape, despite everything that has been going in the world over the last few years.
Having said all that I don't want to be a buyer of HYG at 80. At those levels I think it is better to short and aim for 77-78, and then if the price action looks decent, go long at those levels. The bounce is too sharp for it to have legs to go higher immediately. I'd expect more chop in the 75-81 area before the market decides whether it is going to go higher or lower.
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