BKT News and Press, BlackRock Income Trust Inc. From 10/19/21

A reader asked for my thoughts on BKT. BKT is a leveraged CEF investing in high-quality mortgage-backed securities (MBS), with a strong yield and industry-beating returns. The fund's distribution is also uncovered, unsafe, and unsustainable. A cut is likely. Risks and negative...

2 out of 23 CEF sectors positive on price and 2 out of 23 sectors positive on NAV last week. MLPs lead while convertibles lag. Asia equity is the highest-yielding CEF sector. For further details see: Weekly Closed-End Fund Roundup: October 3, 2021

Last December, the Fed indicated that tapering would begin after “substantial further progress” toward the central bank’s employment and price-stability objectives. The Fed’s priority is to avoid disruption, making the successful 2014 taper a logical starti...

U.S. treasuries are, by far, the largest and most liquid market in the world. For decades, sophisticated market participants have looked to treasuries as the best and fastest interpreter of rapidly breaking macroeconomic data. In moments of high economic distress, money has histor...

A potential reduction in the Fed’s purchases of agency mortgage-backed securities could open up opportunities for investors. The agency mortgage market is currently trading roughly 15 basis points rich relative to its three-year average. Agency pass-throughs are a foundatio...

BlackRock Income Trust Inc. (The) (NYSE:BKT) traded at a new 52-week high today of $6.50. So far today approximately 78,000 shares have been exchanged, as compared to an average 30-day volume of 172,000 shares. BlackRock Income Trust Inc. (The) has overhead space with shares priced $6.49...

BKT had been a long-term staple of my portfolio, but I am not comfortable with positions at these levels. The fund typically had a slight discount to NAV in the past. Now, it has a premium in excess of 5%. Agency MBS spreads are historically very tight, suggesting limited upside o...

Ten-year government bond yields mostly fell in June, with those for Australia dropping by more than 16 basis points to 1.48%. The second biggest move came from the U.S. 10-year Treasury mid-yield, which ended June nearly 15 basis points lower at 1.44%, its lowest level since early Mar...

What makes the current scenario most interesting is the fall in the US Ten-Year note yield (TNX), which looks headed for a test of the 1.4% area. Certainly, the fall in bond yields points to expectations of a weakening economy, as well as the possibility that the Fed won’t open...

MSCI US REIT Index rallied 2.7% in June, which marks an impressive run of eight consecutive monthly increases. The Russell 3000 Index jumped 2.5% in June, the fifth straight monthly advance. Comparing GMI to US stocks and bonds shows that global asset allocation remains competitiv...