A surge in global bond yields threatens trouble

IT IS a brave investor who calls the end of a four-decade trend. But bond yields have risen so far and – in recent weeks – so fast that many market participants now believe the era of low interest rates to be over.

Since early August America’s 10-year Treasury yield has traded in excess of 4 per cent, a level unseen from 2008 to 2021.

On Oct 3, it hit a 16-year high of 4.8 per cent, having risen by half a percentage point in a fortnight.