January market volatility a blip or a harbinger?

New York

JANUARY was an unusual and exciting month for financial markets.

Volatility returned to the equity markets. To use a rather unsophisticated measure, almost three-quarters of the trading days showed moves of more than 100 points in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Yields on higher quality government bonds plummeted; 10-year Treasuries ended the month at 1.64 per cent and Germany's 10-year rate touched a record low of 0.298 per cent.