Jim Bianco Profile picture
Apr 9, 2025 7 tweets 4 min read Read on X
Something has broken tonight in the bond market. We are seeing a disorderly liquidation.

If I had to GUESS, the basis trade is in full unwind.

Since Friday's close to now ... the 30-year yield is up 56 bps, in three trading days.

The last time this yield rose this much in 3 days (close to close) was January 7, 1982, when the yield was 14%.

This kind of historic move is caused by a forced liquidation, not human managers make decisions about the outlook for rates at midnight ET.Image
It keeps going, the 30-year yield is now 5.00%!

As chart shows, since Sunday Night, 54 hours ago, the 30-year is up 67 basis points. Cannot find a move like this in my database.

The only overlay is the 30-year Gily blowing up during the Liz Truss moment" in September 2022. That was 130 bos in 5 days. We are now 67 bps 2 1/2 days.Image
S&P futures are down another 100 points or 2% tonight as I write. This sell-off might not be about tariffs but on the realization that the bond market is broken/breaking.

Markets are fragile. Tariffs broke the bond market and now this decline is about this realization.
---

A liquation is underway and must be completed, losing positions have to be exited, not supported or ignored.

Cutting rates and making financing rates cheaper in the middle of this kind of liquidation, encourages speculation ... exactly what is not needed in the middle of such a move.

I think the market knows this which is why the chart below shows only a 63% probability of a cut in rates in a month. Not intra-meeting! Rates cuts are not the answer.

The Fed restarting QE to artificially raise bond prices will only cement the belief that a massive spike in inflation is coming.

This is not a problem that can be fixed with "printing." It was years of "printing" that encouraged the massive build-up in speculation that is now being forced to liquidate.

You cannot drink yourself sober. You can encourage speculation by cutting rates/WE to stop a speculative unwind.Image
I don't think this is China selling bonds to "punish" the US over rates.

There are no good daily statistics to measure this. But I still contend that if this were happening, the dollar would be declining. The Dollar Index (DXY) is up since Thursday's low, suggesting net foreign buying is coming into the US market.
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Above said, technically, China could be selling and keeping their money in overnight repo accounts. If they did this, it says two things ...

1. They are not afraid to dump Treasuries and drive up yields and punish, but they are afraid to take the cash from these Treasury sales and convert it to another currency (dump dollars). Why is it ok to crush the bond market but not the currency market? (Answer, it does not make sense)

2. If they are selling Treasuries and continue to park them in US repo accounts, they are not really serious about punishing the US.

Again, the most logical answer is that they are not the primary seller of Treasury, if they are a seller at all.Image
By the way the US Treasury has an auction of $39 billion of 10-year notes on Wednesday and $22 billion of 30-year bonds on Thursday.

Should be "interesting" to see who wants these Treasuries in the middle of this chaos.
Another sign of how broken things are ...

Since Liberation Day, Crude oil has collapsed 21%. At $57, it is at its lowest level since April 2021 ... or the lowest point since the Ukraine War started in March 2022.

As noted above, over the last three days, bond yields are soaring the most in 40 years.

Restated, bond prices and crude are both crashing together at the same time.

UnprecedentedImage
When the world's largest and most important bond market breaks/is dysfunctional ... knock on effects happen.

*JAPAN’S 40-YR YIELD RISES 32BPS TO HIGHEST SINCE DEBUT IN 2007

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More from @biancoresearch

Mar 22
1/4

Yesterday I posted the thread below arguing that the market is repricing an inflation shock, not a recession scare.

10-year yields are rising, bond volatility is exploding, inflation expectations are jumping, and Fed pricing has swung from cuts toward hikes.

Follow up 🧵
2/4

The immediate pushback is familiar: this “supply shock” will hurt real growth, so the Fed should cut rates.

This well-known economist has been making exactly that argument. Image
3/4

That is only half the equation. A supply shock hurts growth, but it also raises inflation, so the real question is which side dominates.

In 2022, inflation rose more than real growth fell: the blue CPI line and arrow moved sharply higher while the green real-GDP bars and arrow moved modestly lower. The bottom panel shows the Fed’s answer: hikes, not cuts, as the federal funds rate moved from near zero in early 2022 to above 4% by year-end 2022.

Why? When inflation rises faster than growth falls, nominal growth (real GDP plus inflation) rises. If today’s oil shock does the same thing as 2022, the correct takeaway is not automatic cuts. It is possible that the Fed may have to stand pat or even consider hiking.Image
Read 4 tweets
Mar 11
1/6

Ten seafarers have now been killed in 13 attacks on merchant vessels since the Iran conflict erupted on February 28 — more than the 7 U.S. servicemen killed in the war.

The focal point is shifting: can the Strait of Hormuz be reopened? Is the Administration pivoting to that mission?

Every day without a visible path to reopening, the market will price in more risk.

x.com/MikeSchuler/st…

@johnkonrad @mercoglianos
2/6

The problem: the Administration APPEARS to not be taking the Strait threat seriously. The contradiction is stark:

- Trump to tanker captains: "These ships should go through the Strait of Hormuz and show some guts, there's nothing to be afraid of..."

- The U.S. Navy, citing risk of attacks as "too high," says it is unable to provide escorts — despite near-daily requests from the shipping industry.

WTF!

x.com/foxandfriends/…
x.com/FreightWaves/s…
3/6

Yesterday, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine was asked about naval escorts in the Strait. His answer:

"If tasked to escort, we'll look at the range of options to set military conditions to be able to do that..."

Did he just admit they don't have a plan — and haven't started one?

Read 6 tweets
Mar 9
1/5

A 10% increase in energy prices that persists for a year would push global inflation up by 40 basis points and slow economic growth by 0.1-0.2%, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said.

So, what price measures "persists for a year?"

🧵
2/5

As the table below shows, crude oil futures prices for delivery into 2027 are trading in extreme backwardation. Image
3/5

Below is the calendar spread between the first contract (now April) and the 6th contract (now September).

As the bottom panel shows, this spread is -25%, a record since the mid-1990s when the contract specifications were last changed. Image
Read 5 tweets
Feb 7
1/4

I fear this is spot on.

@CryptoNobler's thread unpacks $BTC's "synthetic supply" problem. ETFs, structured notes (@CryptoHayes), futures, options, swaps, lending—all flood the system with "paper" BTC.

When it swamps real demand, price crashes.

x.com/CryptoNobler/s… x.com/coinbureau/sta…
2/4

@CryptoHayes: structured notes on $IBIT flooded $BTC with synthetic supply → forced liquidations turbocharged the dump.

Next rally? TradFi piles into ETFs → Wall Street "prints" more synthetics.

Price discovery decoupled from on-chain.

Volatility on steroids
3/4

Wall Street's entry turned BTC into a pseudo-fractional reserve system.

21M cap? On-chain only—price discovery swims in synthetic street "printing."

Fractional is inherently unstable. That's why banks need heavy regs (Fed/Treasury/OCC/FDIC).

On-chain BTC only needs code.
Read 4 tweets
Feb 1
1/6

10% of the outstanding $BTC is held by $MSTR and the 11 Spot BTC ETFs.

These are the ways normies hold $BTC in regulated brokerage accounts.

Collectively, the avg purchase price is $85.36K, meaning the average is now ~$8k underwater, with an unrealized loss of ~$7B.
🧵 Image
2/6

The 11 biggest spot $BTC ETFs now hold 1.29M $BTC – worth over $115B (Friday PM).

These ETFs hold roughly 6.5% of all $BTC in circulation.

The 3 largest – iShares’ $IBIT (blue), Fidelity’s $FBTC (red), and Grayscale’s $GBTC (orange) – hold 5.65%. Image
3/6

The 11 Spot $BTC ETFs average purchase price is ~$90.2K (blue), about $13K (16%) above the current price (bottom panel).

Note these ETFs are collectively on a record 10 consecutive outflow days. $BTC is down ~8% since Friday's NYSE close. Image
Read 6 tweets
Jan 19
1/11

What is Housing?

Affordable shelter or path to retirement?

It cannot be both.

We tried to make it both in the early 2000s and almost wrecked the financial system.

🧵 Image
2/11

The average home price is $417K (above), an all-time high.

This means around 43% of a median household income (~$84K) goes to housing.

For the last three years, this has been comparable to the (unsustainable) housing peak in 2006. Image
3/11

For 50 years, from the end of World War II through 1997 (red box), housing was affordable. Prices rose by the inflation rate.

In other words, it held its value but remained within reach of most renters/first-time homebuyers. Image
Read 11 tweets

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