Search Results
Journal Article
Do international reactions of stock and bond markets reflect macroeconomic fundamentals?
Using quarterly data for the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom, this article investigates the relationship between changes in fundamental economic conditions and the international reactions of stock and bond markets. The author assesses the degree to which the transmission of information about fundamentals prompts the stock or bond markets in different countries to move together.
Report
A three-factor econometric model of the U.S. term structure
We estimate and test a model of the U.S. term structure that fits both the time series of interest rates and the cross-sectional shapes of the yield and volatility curves. In the model, three unobserved factors drive a stochastic discount process that prices assets so as to rule out arbitrage opportunities. The resulting bond yields are conveniently affine in the factors. We use monthly zero-coupon yield data from January 1986 to March 1996 and estimate the model by applying a Kalman filter that takes into account the model's no-arbitrage restrictions and using only three maturities at a ...
Report
What was the market's view of U.K. monetary policy? Estimating inflation risk and expected inflation with indexed bonds
A measure of the credibility of monetary policy is the inflation risk premium in nominal yields. This will be time varying and can be estimated by combining the information in the nominal term structure with that in the real term structure. We estimate these risk premia using a generalized CIR affine-yield model, with one factor driving the real term structure of monthly observations on two-year, five-year and ten-year UK index-linked debt and two factors driving the term structure of the corresponding nominal yields. Our estimates show that the inflation risk premium contributes on average ...
Journal Article
What moves the bond market?
In an examination of the U.S. Treasury securities market, the authors attempt to explain the sharpest price changes and most active trading episodes. They find that each of the twenty-five largest price shocks and twenty-five greatest trading surges can be attributed to just-released macroeconomic announcements. They also measure the market's average reactions to theses announcements and analyze the extent to which the reactions depend on the degree of announcement surprise and on prevailing market conditions. The market's price and trading reactions are found to reflect differences of ...
Journal Article
Market returns and mutual fund flows
With the increased popularity of mutual funds come increased concerns. Namely, could a sharp drop in stock and bond prices set off a cascade of redemptions by mutual fund investors and could the redemptions exert further downward pressure on asset markets? The authors analyze this relationship by using instrumental variables--a measuring technique previously unapplied to market returns and mutual fund flows--to determine the effect of returns on flows. Despite market observers' fears of a downward spiral in asset prices, the authors conclude that the short-term effect of market returns on ...
Report
What moves the bond market?
We take a close look at a year in the U.S. Treasury market and try to explain the sharpest price changes and most active trading episodes. The virtue of our analysis lies in its use of high-frequency data on market movements and accurate release times for a comprehensive set of economic announcements. For the period August 1993 to August 1994, we attribute the 25 largest price moves and 25 greatest trading surges to just-released announcements. The bond market's response to announcements in general is consistent with the way we would expect it to react to new information.