"The prospect that central banks will continue to inject money into the world's bond markets, as well as enact policies to keep interest rates low, has acted as a green light for the world's bond buyers.
Investors came into this year anticipating rates would move higher as economies picked up steam and as the Fed pulled back stimulus efforts.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury was about 3% at the beginning of the year, and Wall Street strategists and economists were predicting rates would rise steadily beyond that.
This year through Tuesday, U.S. Treasury bonds have handed investors a total return of 2.18%, according to data from Barclays PLC. The S&P 500 has returned 3.4% in the same period, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has returned 1.7%, according to FactSet and including price gains and dividend payments.
German government bonds have delivered investors a return of 3.5% so far this year and U.K. government bonds 3.17%. Total return includes price appreciation and interest payments and is calculated in local-currency terms.
By the end of the day Wednesday, the 10-year U.S. Treasury note was 21/32 higher in price, yielding 2.544%. In Europe, the yield on the 10-year German government bond fell to 1.37%, while the yield on the 10-year U.K. government bond dropped to 2.583%"
Source: WSJ.
