Thursday, October 02, 2008

A Look At a Deflating Market




Since July, we've seen commodity prices collapse (top chart), the U.S. dollar rally furiously versus the euro (middle chart), and high-yield bond prices collapse (bottom chart). It's not exactly the inflationary scenario that some envisioned as the result of the rescue legislation--at least not yet. This is a market that is punishing anything associated with risk, which explains the massive flight into short-term Treasury instruments despite their paltry (and significantly negative real) yields.
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