Brian Chappatta, Columnist

Yield Curve Provides Jittery Markets With a Road Map

The most intense flattening in months is a reminder that the Fed isn’t inclined to slow down.

November 2, 2018 at 3:23 PM UTC

Brian Chappatta is managing editor of Bloomberg News' leveraged finance and distressed debt teams. He was previously managing editor and team leader of its wealth group. Before that he was a Bloomberg Opinion markets and finance columnist and a bonds reporter for Bloomberg News.

You can’t fight the Fed.
Photographer: Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images

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Don’t say I didn’t warn you about fighting the Federal Reserve.

The Labor Department’s employment report Friday showed American businesses added 250,000 jobs in October, beating the median estimate of 200,000 in a Bloomberg survey. Just as important, average hourly earnings advanced 3.1 percent from a year earlier, the most since April 2009. It wasn’t all that surprising that Treasury yields rose, as they have for much of this week. The key difference is that the U.S. yield curve flattened significantly, with the spread between five- and 30-year debt at one point matching the sharpest intraday narrowing since June.