While Wall St. Talks of Recession, Bond Investors Make a Killing
For stock investors, the trade war has been nothing but trouble. For bond investors, it’s been a dream.
Unable to stomach turbulence driven by the escalating conflict between China and the United States, and leery of a darkening outlook for the economy, investors have been pulling money out of the stock market and buying bonds, the traditional place to park cash during times of uncertainty.
The rush has turned parts of the ordinarily boring bond market into a better bet than stocks. The gains are unusual; by some measures, bonds are having their best year since 2002. And they do carry risks for investors who are buying now. If the concerns that have lured investors into the bond market dissipate — because Washington and Beijing reach a trade deal, for example — then bond prices could start to fall.
When investors expect the economy to grow, they typically turn to investments like stocks that might rise fast as company profits increase.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/28/business/bond-market-trade-war.html