(PUB) Investing 2015

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21 Morningstar FundInvestor August 2015
Bond-Market Snapshot
Interest-Rate Review
The long end of the yield curve flattened in July. The Barclays Long
US Treasuries Index gained 3.5%, following a stretch of losses
for the previous three months. Investment-grade corporate bonds
gained less than 1%, but high-yield bonds had slight losses. The
Barclays Intermediate Municipal and Long Municipal Bond indexes
returned 0.63% and 1.06%, respectively. Emerging markets,
stoked by concerns over the Greek debt crisis and a strengthening
dollar, lost about 3%.
Treasury Yield Curve ( %)
Yield to maturity of current bills, notes, and bonds p Current (07-31-15) p One Year Ago (07-31-14)
Treasury and Municipal-Bond Yields
High-Yield and Treasury-Bond Yields
Municipal-Bond Spread Snapshot
Unattractive
1.73
Attractive
-1.83
High-Yield Bond Spread Snapshot
Attractive
10.71
Unattractive
2.01
p Vanguard Interm-Term Tax-Exempt p Vanguard Interm-Term U.S. Treasury
p Vanguard High-Yield Corporate p Vanguard Interm-Term U.S. Treasury
Data as of July 31, 2015. Yield Spread: The difference between yields on differing debt instruments, calculated by deducting the
yield of one instrument from another. The higher the yield spread, the greater the difference between the yields offered by
each instrument. For municipal bonds, a smaller spread is attractive because munis typically pay smaller yields than Treasuries.
For high-yield bonds, a wider spread is more attractive because junk bonds typically pay higher yields than Treasuries.
July 31, 2015 -0.30
High 1.73
Low -1.83
Average 0.10
Last Month (06-30-15) -0.31
A Year Ago (07-31-14) -0.17
July 31, 2015 3.70
High 10.71
Low 2.01
Average 3.99
Last Month (06-30-15) 3.52
A Year Ago (07-31-14) 2.62 07-31-15
07-31-15
7.00
6.50
5.00
4.50
3.00
1.50
0.00
15.00
12.00
9.00
6.00
3.00
0.00
98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14
98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14
Maturity
6.00
5.00
4.00
3.00
2.00
1.00
1 mo 3 6 1 yr 2 3 5 7 10 20 30