Long duration was the trade to have for the month of November. The yield-to-worst of the S&P/BGCantor Current 30-Year U.S. Treasury Index closed the month at a 2.90%, 17 basis points tighter than the beginning of the month 3.06%. 10-years as measured by the S&P/BGCantor Current 10 Year U.S. Treasury Bond Index also tightened by 16 basis points.
Investment grade corporate bonds as measured by the S&P U.S. Issued Investment Grade Corporate Bond Index had a return of 0.7% for the month. Together with October’s gain of 0.9%, the last two months make up for the September loss of -1.17%.
High Yield in November ended in the red as the S&P U.S. Issued High Yield Corporate Bond Index returned a -0.63% for the month. Unlike the high yield, the S&P/LSTA U.S. Leveraged Loan 100 Index was in the green for the month as senior bank loan returned 0.36% for the month. Though still a little more than half the year-to-date return of high yield (2.46% vs. 4.12%), it’s the steady return of leverage loan and lower volatility that is a plus to the loan sector.
Green bonds whose duration is just under 5 years at a 4.92 also had a negative return for the month (-0.20%) as the S&P Green Bond Index has underperformed year-to-date returning -0.85%.
– See more at: http://www.indexologyblog.com/2014/12/01/the-long-end-of-the-curve-pays-off-in-november/#sthash.gSQPhT17.dpuf
This article was written by Kevin Horan, director, fixed income indices, S&P Dow Jones Indices.
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