Many U.S. securities and a few sectors are missing, while foreign bonds are added.
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Three asset classes are for stability: short money, U.S. bonds and foreign bonds.
Simply holding foreign currencies or foreign bonds or something is probably not too good a strategy.
Buying foreign bonds (and selling Swiss francs) is thus a logical step to expand liquidity.
Straight foreign bonds aren't carried in inventory by big retail firms like A.G.
And foreign investors, recalling Ecuador's default on its foreign bonds in 1999, have no appetite to lend.
Treasury, corporate, municipal, high-yield and foreign bonds (and bond funds) can all play a role in your portfolio.
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Higher yields are attainable by investing in lower-credit-quality bonds and foreign bonds, but as yields rise, so do the risks.
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As an aside, I find it ironic that investment grade foreign bonds issued in the U.S. are included in the index.
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According to the G7, Japan can do what it likes as long as it does not actually intervene or buy foreign bonds.
You can't obtain foreign bonds through an online brokerage, for instance.
Given the sizable cost of individual bonds, a well-diversified portfolio of government, corporate and foreign bonds is all but impossible for a small investor.
The market now expects domestic Japanese Government Bond (JGB) holders to cash out and seek higher yield solace in U.S. Treasuries and other high-grade foreign bonds.
In that case, you might look to a multisector bond fund that invests in many markets, such as lower-rated "junk" debt and foreign bonds, in search of higher yields.
Total bank credit, including foreign bonds and loans in foreign currencies, fell to 6.3% in the first from 8.4% in the same period last year, according to the World Bank.
At the Bank of Japan's October monetary-policy meeting, Nobuyuki Nakahara, one of the independent members of the bank's policy board, proposed that the bank set a price-level target and examine ways to buy foreign bonds.
According to Nomura, 13% of Toshin investors responding to a bank survey said that they prefer to hold Brazil and other foreign bonds for more than five years, with 23.3% holding on average of three to five years.
On the contrary, Japanese households are turning their assets back into yen, having been badly burned in their ventures into high-yielding (and highly risky) foreign bonds, while the banks have ended the trade of borrowing yen to buy dollars.
One of the ways the market measures credit risks is by looking at the spreds of credit default swaps, a default insurance derivatives market that measures the risk of buying foreign bonds as compared to buying a comparable maturity from the US Treasury.
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But it would ultimately force the central bank to buy such securities as foreign bonds, corporate bonds and Japanese government bonds and possibly even land, to make sure that the money finally begins to circulate and doesn't get stuck in a banking sinkhole again.
Still, the greenback got a push higher against the yen in early Asian trading as data showed Japanese investors reversed a two-month selling trend by becoming net buyers of foreign bonds in the past two weeks through to May 4, according to the Ministry of Finance.
"Speaking in terms of JGB investments, investors who need yield will ultimately extend the maturity of JGBs they are buying, and those who don't want to do that or can't do that will buy other things like foreign bonds or credit, and in some cases equity, " said Kenji Sakaguchi, chief investment officer at Prudential Investment Management Japan Co.
Here you have 800bn euros of foreign-owned government bonds, 600bn euros of foreign-owned corporate bonds, and 300bn euros of foreign-owned listed equities (numbers from JP Morgan) - together with E3 trillion of deposits.
This will include the purchase of government bonds, corporate bonds, stocks, and possibly foreign government bonds.
After all, municipal bonds overall have significantly lower default rates than corporate and foreign government bonds, and their permanent losses are even smaller.
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Japanese individuals invest in foreign government bonds and currencies in investment trust units known as Toshin funds.
And for all the talk on Wall Street about global investing, it isn't especially easy for U.S. customers to buy foreign government bonds directly.
The defenders of the Volcker rule point out that trading in foreign sovereign bonds played a central role in bringing down MF Global Holdings Ltd.
Recent moves include lifting quotas on foreign ownership of Indian bonds and efforts to allow foreign pension managers into India for the first time.
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