Deja Vu for Interest Rates
Times Staff Writer
Dear bond investor: Yes, you’ve been here before.
This is the fourth straight year in which interest rates have risen in the first few months, upsetting markets.
* In 1996, the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond soared from 6% at the start of the year to just above 7% by mid-May.
* In 1997, the T-bond yield jumped from 6.6% on Jan. 1 to almost 7.2% by mid-April.
* In 1998, the move was smaller, but still to the upside: The T-bond yield inched up from 5.75% at the start of the year to just over 6% by late March.
The good news: In all three of those years, after peaking in spring, bond yields spent most of the rest of the year in decline.
