IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2505.07226.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How Does Monetary Policy Influence the U.S. Treasury Bond Yields, and What are the Implications for Portfolio Managers?

Author

Listed:
  • Minnie Zhu
  • Yuhan Liu
  • Simon Gong

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of monetary policy surprises on U.S. Treasury bond yields and the implications for portfolio managers. Based on the supply and demand model, traditional economic theories suggest that Federal Reserve bond purchases should increase bond prices and decrease yields. However, New Keynesian models challenge this view, proposing that bond prices should not necessarily rise due to future expectations influencing investor behavior. By analyzing the effects of monetary policy surprises within narrow windows around Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announcements, this study aims to isolate the true impact of these surprises on bond yields. The research covers Treasury bonds of various maturities--3 months, 1 year, 10 years, and 30 years--and utilizes cross-sectional regression analysis. The findings reveal that financial crises significantly decrease short-term yields, while no obvious evidence of factors that might affect long-term yields. This paper provides insights into how monetary policy influences bond yields and offers practical implications for portfolio management, particularly during quantitative easing and financial crises.

Suggested Citation

  • Minnie Zhu & Yuhan Liu & Simon Gong, 2025. "How Does Monetary Policy Influence the U.S. Treasury Bond Yields, and What are the Implications for Portfolio Managers?," Papers 2505.07226, arXiv.org.
  • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2505.07226
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2505.07226
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Todorov, Karamfil, 2020. "Quantify the quantitative easing: Impact on bonds and corporate debt issuance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(2), pages 340-358.
    2. Simon Gilchrist & David López-Salido & Egon Zakrajšek, 2015. "Monetary Policy and Real Borrowing Costs at the Zero Lower Bound," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 77-109, January.
    3. Malcolm Baker & Jeffrey Wurgler, 2006. "Investor Sentiment and the Cross‐Section of Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1645-1680, August.
    4. Joseph Gagnon & Matthew Raskin & Julie Remache & Brian Sack, 2011. "The Financial Market Effects of the Federal Reserve's Large-Scale Asset Purchases," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 7(1), pages 3-43, March.
    5. Campbell, Jeffrey R. & Ferroni, Filippo & Fisher, Jonas D.M. & Melosi, Leonardo, 2019. "The limits of forward guidance," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 118-134.
    6. Ben S. Bernanke, 2015. "The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9928-2.
    7. Arvind Krishnamurthy & Annette Vissing-Jorgensen, 2011. "The Effects of Quantitative Easing on Interest Rates: Channels and Implications for Policy," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 42(2 (Fall)), pages 215-287.
    8. Hanson, Samuel G. & Stein, Jeremy C., 2015. "Monetary policy and long-term real rates," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(3), pages 429-448.
    9. Bernanke, Ben S & Blinder, Alan S, 1992. "The Federal Funds Rate and the Channels of Monetary Transmission," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(4), pages 901-921, September.
    10. Robin Greenwood & Dimitri Vayanos, 2014. "Bond Supply and Excess Bond Returns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(3), pages 663-713.
    11. Stefania D'Amico & Thomas B. King, 2023. "Past and Future Effects of the Recent Monetary Policy Tightening," Chicago Fed Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, vol. 0, pages 1-6, September.
    12. Arvind Krishnamurthy & Annette Vissing-Jorgensen, 2011. "The Effects of Quantitative Easing on Interest Rates: Channels and Implications for Policy," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 43(2 (Fall)), pages 215-287.
    13. Joseph E. Gagnon, 2016. "Quantitative Easing: An Underappreciated Success," Policy Briefs PB16-4, Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Massimo Guidolin & Valentina Massagli & Manuela Pedio, 2021. "Does the cost of private debt respond to monetary policy? Heteroskedasticity-based identification in a model with regimes," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(18), pages 1804-1833, December.
    2. Goliński, Adam, 2021. "Monetary policy at the zero lower bound: Information in the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    3. Lutz, Chandler, 2015. "The impact of conventional and unconventional monetary policy on investor sentiment," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 89-105.
    4. Aysun, Uluc & Jeon, Kiyoung & Kabukcuoglu, Zeynep, 2018. "Is the credit channel alive? Firm-level evidence on the sensitivity of borrowing spreads to monetary policy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 305-319.
    5. Sims, Eric & Wu, Jing Cynthia, 2021. "Evaluating Central Banks’ tool kit: Past, present, and future," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 135-160.
    6. Simon Gilchrist & Vivian Z. Yue & Egon Zakrajšek, 2016. "The Response of Sovereign Bond Yields to U.S. Monetary Policy," Central Banking, Analysis, and Economic Policies Book Series, in: Elías Albagli & Diego Saravia & Michael Woodford (ed.),Monetary Policy through Asset Markets: Lessons from Unconventional Measures and Implications for an Integrated World, edition 1, volume 24, chapter 8, pages 257-283, Central Bank of Chile.
    7. Berndt, Antje & Yeltekin, Şevin, 2015. "Monetary policy, bond returns and debt dynamics," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 119-136.
    8. Stefania D'Amico & Vamsi Kurakula & Stephen M. Lee, 2020. "Impacts of the Fed Corporate Credit Facilities through the Lenses of ETFs and CDX," Working Paper Series WP-2020-14, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    9. Benjamin Garcia & Arsenios Skaperdas, 2017. "Inferring the Shadow Rate from Real Activity," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2017-106, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    10. Neely, Christopher J., 2022. "How persistent are unconventional monetary policy effects?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    11. Maciej Stefański, 2021. "Macroeconomic Effects of Quantitative Easing Using Mid-sized Bayesian Vector Autoregressions," KAE Working Papers 2021-068, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of Economic Analysis.
    12. King, Thomas B., 2019. "Expectation and duration at the effective lower bound," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(3), pages 736-760.
    13. Swanson, Eric T., 2021. "Measuring the effects of federal reserve forward guidance and asset purchases on financial markets," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 32-53.
    14. Koijen, Ralph S.J. & Koulischer, François & Nguyen, Benoît & Yogo, Motohiro, 2021. "Inspecting the mechanism of quantitative easing in the euro area," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(1), pages 1-20.
    15. Schlepper, Kathi & Riordan, Ryan & Hofer, Heiko & Schrimpf, Andreas, 2017. "Scarcity effects of QE: A transaction-level analysis in the Bund market," Discussion Papers 06/2017, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    16. Howard Kung & Gonzalo Morales & Alexandre Corhay, 2017. "Fiscal Discount Rates and Debt Maturity," 2017 Meeting Papers 840, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    17. Francesco Casalena, 2024. "Back to normal? Assessing the Effects of the Federal Reserve's Quantitative Tightening," IHEID Working Papers 14-2024, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies.
    18. Alpanda, Sami & Aysun, Uluc & Kabaca, Serdar, 2024. "International portfolio rebalancing and fiscal policy spillovers," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    19. Arito Ono & Kosuke Aoki & Shinichi Nishioka & Kohei Shintani & Yosuke Yasui, 2016. "Long-term interest rates and bank loan supply: Evidence from firm-bank loan-level data," Bank of Japan Working Paper Series 16-E-2, Bank of Japan.
    20. D'Avino, Carmela, 2018. "Quantitative easing, global banks and the international bank lending channel," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 234-246.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2505.07226. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.