U.S. fixed-income returns post another positive year

Federal Reserve intervention and a flight to safety led to positive U.S. fixed income returns across sectors in 2020. Generally, the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Total Return index returned 7.51% for the year. The U.S. yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 0.916 from 1.919 at the end of 2019, while short-term interest rates on the U.S. 3-month Treasury bill plummeted to 0.0583% from 1.5436%.

Convertible bonds with a high exposure to the technology sector, including Tesla, had an astonishing return of 50.27% for the year.