Vanguard Total Bond Market

BND

Valor de mercado US$ 163 bi

Bonds are paying the best yields in years and still dragging portfolios into the red, leaving investors scrambling for a defensive asset that actually defends. A growing group of Wall Street managers thinks the answer involves shorting Treasuries outright.

Vanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond ETF offers a higher dividend yield than Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF. Both Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF and Vanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond ETF carry identical 0.03% expense ratios.

U.S. bond yields are rising, providing an increasingly attractive alternative to pricey stocks. Trump's unorthodox policy may be causing this trend to accelerate.

US Treasury yields may ‌have further room to rise, with the Federal Reserve likely ​to deliver one or ​two more rate increases before ⁠the current tightening cycle ends, ​Dan Ivascyn, chief investment officer ​at the world's largest bond manager, told Reuters on Tuesday.

The global competition for capital remains the key dynamic keeping yields elevated. Notably, all of the September increase in 10-year Treasury yields came from real yields, as implied by the TIPS market.

Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF offers significantly lower expenses and higher assets under management than iShares 3-7 Year Treasury Bond ETF. iShares 3-7 Year Treasury Bond ETF maintains lower price volatility and a smaller historical max drawdown compared to the broader Vanguard fund.

US Treasuries resumed their retreat, lifting the 30-year yield back to its highest since 2002 as climbing oil prices raised concern about faster inflation and more central bank interest-rate increases. Vishal Khanduja, Head of Broad Markets Fixed Income at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, discusses credit spreads and whether or not yields will soon peak.

Japan, Europe, and the U.S. were feeling the fallout from France, where yields on its benchmark 10-year note climbed closer to 5%, the highest since 2002.

Asian market opened the week firmer on Monday as a sharp slowdown in US hiring pushed investors towards a Federal Reserve pause this month, giving rate-sensitive technology stocks room to rebound. Japan led the advance, with the Nikkei 225 jumping 2.5% above 70,000 to a three-month high, while Taiwan's Taiex gained about 2.6%.

VHT is a diversified play on the non-cyclical healthcare sector. BND will benefit from interest rate cuts in a recession.