Market Outlook The whole world is going to negative yields -- not quite in North America yet. There are $7 billion of bonds in Europe that are trading below zero -- you have to pay the company to hold their bonds. This may start to push up gold prices, where you are not giving up yield. Now that Europe is struggling with this, North America may be next. Workers are being hired in North America, but wage inflation is not happening.

Preferred shares as proxy for bonds? Preferred shares have higher volatility than bonds. The rate resets issues when interest rates were going up did well, but when rates fall they can get hit by 10-30%. Preferreds are not a proxy for bonds because of this.