Bonds

Investors can get equity-like returns by investing in short-term publicly traded bonds, which are generating yields of 6% to 8%, Pacific Investment Management Co. executives said.

Traders amped up wagers on a June rate increase to about 40% after Fed Bank of Dallas President Lorie Logan said the case for a pause next month is not clear.

Funding conditions have eased since the height of financial-sector volatility in March, with US new issue concessions and average yields dropping.

Treasury two-year yields slumped as much as 21 basis points and approaching the 4% threshold. Bonds also climbed after data showing JOLTS jobs opening figures.

Analysts have a base-case proxy of 1.2%, accounting for stress in the agricultural sector, which includes higher default levels from the 2006-2009 and 2015-2017 vintages.

Fixed-income trading revenue declined 17%, the firm said in a statement Tuesday, leaving Goldman the only major Wall Street bank so far to have posted a drop for that business.

Two-year Treasury yields slid a percentage point over three days in March, the most since 1982. Gone are the days when inflation was the main menace.

The two-year U.S. rate, which is the most sensitive to monetary policy, slid for a fifth day, its longest streak since July 2022. Economists now assign a 65% probability of a U.S. recession.

Traders flocked to shorter-maturity Treasuries, driving two-year yields down 18 basis points at one stage. The 10-year note's rate was 1.5 percentage point lower than the 3-month T-bill.

Traders got another taste this week of the contrasting forces battering the market with bonds falling after a surprise cut to global oil production, only to bounce back hours later following weak economic data.