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AGG

iShares Core Total U.S. Bond Market ETF

6/20/2013, 2:42 AM ET

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Tuesday, June 18, 8:54 AM "The biggest contrarian play in the market today is assets linked to China (FXI, CAF)," says Michael Hartnett, summarizing BAML's latest Fund Manager Survey, which shows money flowing out of commodities (DBC) and emerging markets (EEM, DEM, VWO). Where's the money going? The eurozone and the U.S. Where it's not going is fixed-income (AGG, BND) - 50% of managers say they're now underweight bonds as opposed to 38% last month. Comment!
Saturday, June 15, 9:55 AM More than half of bond ETFs saw price price declines greater than their drop in NAV last month, according to Morningstar. The MUB's 3.1% fall compares to a 1.3% dip in NAV - not peanuts considering the fund's 2.8% annual yield. Similar patterns were seen in other muni funds like CXA and ITM as well as in junk bond ETFs like HYG, but was not evident in TIPS (TIP) trackers or broad fixed-income ETFs like AGG and BND. 2 Comments [Quick Ideas]
Thursday, June 13, 9:20 AM Municipals (MUB) are a buy, writes David Kotok, noting an above-4% yield for very high-grade tax-free muni paper - a taxable equivalent yield above 7%. He suggests fixed-income markets (AGG, BND) have overreacted to the poor communication policies of central banks. "We are now lengthening duration ... If the market wants to give us bargains, our job is to take them." Some closed end muni funds at discounts to NAV: NIO, NVG, BTT, NPM, NRK, MUC, VCV, NEA. Comment! [Quick Ideas]
Tuesday, June 11, 3:28 PM How frightened are bond investors (AGG, BND)? The Jeff Gundlach premium disappeared this morning - if only for a moment - from the Doubleline Opportunistic Credit Fund (DBL) when the share price fell below NAV. The closed-end fund had traded at a premium for what appears to be its entire existence and entered today's session at 5% above NAV. The same action was evident in the Doubleline Income Solutions Fund (DSL), though that vehicle is only 2 months old. Comment! [U.S. Economy]
Tuesday, June 11, 9:59 AM Apple's iBonds are showing up in the holdings of numerous bond ETFs, including total U.S. bond market ETFs like AGG and corporate bond ETFs like LAG - both tied to indexes. The paper is also held by corporate bond ETFs LQD, SCHZ, ITR, LWC, and SCPB. Notably not owing any of the debt are the Pimco IG Corporate Bond Index (CORP) and Bill Gross' Total Return ETF (BOND). Comment! [Financials]
Tuesday, June 4, 1:17 PM Fixed-income skittishness: Bill Gross' Total Return Fund - the world's largest bond fund - suffered its first monthly outflows since 2011 in May (2011 was the year Gross made an ill-timed short bet on Treasurys). The fund fell 2.15% last month, according to Morningstar. The ETF version of the fund (BOND) fell 2.4%. Benchmarks AGG (-2.2%), and BND (-2.1%) fared a bit better. Comment! [Financials]
Monday, June 3, 1:54 PM iShares Core Total U.S. Bond Market ETF (AGG) announces monthly distribution of $0.1952. 30-day SEC yield of 2.06% (as of 5/30/2013). For shareholders of record June 05. Payable June 07. Ex-div date June 03. Comment! [Dividends]
Friday, May 31, 4:16 PM It looks like Treasury yields finally got high enough to trigger a big rotation out of stocks and into fixed-income. Something seemed to snap when the 10-year rose to 2.20% this afternoon - the resulting action saw money pour out of equities (SPY -1.4%) and into Treasurys (TLT -0.3%), with the 10-year yield falling back to close at 2.14%. 9 Comments
Friday, May 31, 11:23 AM "Mr. Market may be a manic-depressive, but he is also patient," says Britt Harris, CIO of Texas' $117B Teacher Retirement System. "He always waits to move until he has just about all of us on the train." The market cycle is getting ripe, says Harris, but he's not worried long-term. "Unlevered debt (AGG, BND) is virtually useless now as a long-term wealth management accumulator ... The probability that equity (VTI) will outperform bonds over the next 10-20 years is probably unusually high." A great read for allocation fans. 1 Comment
Thursday, May 30, 8:11 AM Even as he publicly said the bond bull market was over, Bill Gross got caught with his duration a bit too long. Pimco's Total Return Fund is off 1.8% in May, ranking it in the bottom-5 percentile of its peer group. The ETF version (BOND) is off 2.2% vs. AGG and BND each off less than 2%. BOND remains ahead of its benchmarks YTD. 2 Comments [U.S. Economy, Financials]
Tuesday, May 28, 4:20 AM It was an ugly day in fixed-income - (TLT -2.6%), (LQD -1%) - the 10-year Treasury yield up 15 bps to a 13-month high of 2.16%. Maybe more troubling for those borrowing short and lending long is a 12 bp jump in the 5-year yield to 1.01% (its up from 0.65% in a month), and a 4 bp pop in the 2-year yield to 0.28%. It was shoot first, ask questions last for many income plays such as mREITs (MORT -2.8%), equity REITs (HCN, HCP), utilities, and leveraged income funds (PHK). Owners of the leveraged short Treasury Fund (TBT +5.3%) throw a party, now up 16% in a month. Comment! [U.S. Economy, Financials]
Thursday, May 9, 9:52 AM "Berkshire issuing debt is effectively an efficient way to short the bond market (AGG, BND)," says fund manager (and BRK.A, BRK.B owner) Richard Cook, following Berkshire Hathaway Finance's $1B debt offering yesterday (5-year and 30-year paper). Proceeds will be used to redeem $1B of notes maturing this month. "I feel sorry for people that have clung to fixed-dollar investments," said Buffett earlier this week. 2 Comments [Financials]
Monday, May 6, 7:47 AM More Buffett/CNBC: "Bonds (AGG, BND, TLT) are priced artificially," he says, and investors in long-term paper stand to lose a terrific amount of money. It echos weekend comments where he told Omaha concert-goers, "I feel sorry for people that have clung to fixed-dollar investments." 15 Comments
Friday, May 3, 3:13 PM "Bonds are acting like the bond market is manipulated ... because it is," says Jeff Gundlach, as QE is far more of a put on Treasury prices (TLT -2.3%) than it is on stocks. A salve to bond bulls on a day when the yield on the 30-year is 14 bps higher, Gundlach says yields won't go on a sustained rise anytime soon because QE is going nowhere. A favorite of the bond bears, TBT +4.6%. 7 Comments
Friday, May 3, 12:54 PM Stocks remain sharply higher midday (SPY +1.2%), with the year's leaders - healthcare (XLV +0.7%), utilities (XLU +0.2%), and staples (XLP +0.7%) - lagging, and the year's laggers - industrials (XLI +2.1%), tech (XLK +1.1%), and energy (XLE +1.9%) - leading. Treasurys (TLT -2.1%) are suffering one of their worst days of the year, and broader fixed income (AGG -0.3%). 1 Comment
Thursday, May 2, 7:35 AM The number of bond funds owning stocks rose to 352 in Q1, according to Morningstar, up from 312 in Q4 and the highest level in nearly 2 decades. "We believe that traditional fixed income (AGG, BND) is at a historic level of being overvalued," says Forward Management, explaining to investors why it's moved from about zero of their funds in stocks to about 50% over the last year. 5 Comments

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