“
‘I think Treasurys at these rates, I wouldn’t touch them with a 10-foot pole.’
”
— Jamie Dimon
Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co.
JPM,
+0.10%,
is seeing bubbles in a certain segment of financial markets: U.S. government bonds.
On Tuesday, speaking at a financial services conference hosted by Goldman Sachs
GS,
+0.16%,
the prominent Wall Street chieftain shunned Treasurys as an investment, at least in the near term, saying he “would not be a buyer” of government bonds — considered super safe by traditional investors.
Dimon’s stance is because of the ultralow interest-rate regime prevailing throughout the globe, including subzero rates, to the tune of some $17 trillion.
Bond prices rise as yields falls.
The 10-year Treasury note
TMUBMUSD10Y,
0.933%
has been attempting to scale toward a yield of 1% but has been beaten back persistently, as investors pile into sovereign debt spurred by a host of worries that have dogged markets, including the recession-inducing COVID-19 pandemic and the trillions of dollars in deficit-ballooning spending deployed to limit the global economic damage.
Equity markets across the globe have rebounded mightily from their lows in March, but bonds remain richly priced by some measures, holding yields at uncharacteristically low levels despite the rally in stocks.
The S&P 500 index
SPX,
+0.28%
closed at its 30th record high of 2020 on Tuesday, and the Nasdaq Composite Index
COMP,
+0.50%
delivered its 50th record high this year, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+0.35%
notched the second-highest finish in its history.
Still, Treasurys remain pinned lower for the time being, even as worries about a surge in inflation are surfacing.
″There may be a bubble in small parts of the stock market, not all of it,” Dimon said.
