Investors now struggling to find true safe havens

London

WORKING out what is truly safe has become a risky business. Traditional boltholes such as US and German bonds or the Swiss franc are benefiting less than might be expected from the huge gyrations in equities or the concerns that China's economy is slowing.

When stock markets wilted on Aug 24, money flowed into the large, liquid US and German government debt markets, as might be expected. But it appeared to exit even more quickly when equities rebounded the following day. In fact, the 10-year yields in both countries are higher than they were at the end of last week, ev…