Interest Rates And The Bond Market: Why You Should Care

Interest Rates And The Bond Market: Why You Should Care by Brad McMillan, Commonwealth Financial Network

Over the past couple of days, the bond market has had a bit of a snit. Rates for government bonds have risen—meaning that prices have dropped—around the world.

Take a look at the rates on the 10-year U.S. Treasury in the chart below, from MarketWatch.com.

The actual change, about a quarter of a percentage point, doesn’t look like that big of a deal, particularly since approximately half of the increase has been reversed since yesterday.

Viewed from a slightly different perspective, though, we see that rates actually rose by about an eighth and...