US Treasury yields have been on the rise this week with the 10-year yield rising 13 basis points (bps) from 0.56% up to 0.69% after getting as high as 0.72% on Thursday.  A 13 bps move higher in interest rates may not seem like a whole lot, but with rates already at such low levels, a small move can have a pretty big impact on the prices of longer-term maturities.

Starting with longer-term US Treasuries, TLT, which measures the performance of maturities greater than 20 years, has declined 3.5% this week.  Now, for a growth stock, 3.5% is par for the course, but that kind of move in the Treasury market is no small thing.  The latest pullback for TLT also coincides with another failed attempt by the ETF to trade and stay above $170 for more than a day.

The further out the maturity window you go in the fixed income market, the bigger the impact of the move higher in interest rates.  The Republic of Austria issued a 100-year bond in 2017, and its movements exemplify the wild moves that small changes in interest rates (from a low base) can have on prices.  Just this week, the Austrian 100-year was down over 5%, which is a painful move no matter what type of asset class you are talking about.  This week’s move, though, was nothing compared to the stomach-churning swings from earlier this year.  When Covid was first hitting the fan, the 100-year rallied 57% in the span of less than two months. That kind of move usually occurs over years rather than days, but in less than a third of that time, all those gains disintegrated in a two-and-a-half week span from early to late March.  Easy come, easy go. Ironically enough, despite all the big up and down moves in this bond over the last year, as we type this, the bond’s price is the same now as it was on this same day last year.  Start a two-week free trial to Bespoke Institutional to access all of our research and interactive economic tools.