Mortgage Bonds ‘Leading the Pack’ as Debt Rallies

Prices for U.S. home-loan bonds without government-backed guarantees soared, pushing one class of debt almost 20 percent higher than a month ago. The most-senior securities backed by option adjustable-rate mortgages jumped 9 cents on the dollar from mid-December to 58 cents last week, according to Barclays Capital Inc. That’s almost double their bottom of 33 cents in mid-March. So-called non-agency home-loan bonds have been “leading the pack” as asset prices rally to start the year, Barclays analysts led by Ajay Rajadhyaksha in New York wrote in a Jan. 8 report.