If you take a look at the current financial market, you’ll see certainly more “downs” than “ups”, especially in the stock market. The main indexes are hitting their lowest levels as investors refuse to invest. The “domino effect” is also present… It doesn’t look good at all, especially if you’re looking to invest your money somewhere.

But… In this darkness, there is something that shines. There is light at the end of the tunnel. We’re talking about corporate bonds. For those who don’t know what these are, here’s a quick description. Corporate bonds are bonds issued by a large corporation and they are usually long-term oriented. Of course, there are many companies that issue bonds… And here’s where you should be careful. It’s very important to study the company’s financial data and check their credit worthiness. If you think they’ll still be around and won’t go down during this crisis, it’s almost a safe bet.

However, investing in bonds isn’t completely safe. There is bond risk. If you see a bond rated “AAA” (for example, General Electric bonds are AAA), their risk is minimal and they could be considered as safe.

In the end, it’s neccessary to say that you should keep your hopes in a normal level. Don’t expect to get a fortune on bonds. But compared to stocks, bonds seem a way better choice these days.

Bonds in Japan are having a tough time these days. To cover the (enormous) losses caused by the big crash of the NIKKEI index which fell to it’s 25-year low, investors have turned to selling their bonds.

“Investors have lost a lot of money as this terrible thing happened, and they have to find the money to compensate.” says Shoichi Nakagawa, Japan’s Financial Minister.

We hope that the market will recover soon…

Investors seem to have doubts about the future again, even though the economy is showing some signs of recovery. The Dow Jones index fell 515 points.
Many companies are announcing a bright future as far as their earnings are concerned, dollar is rising, the price of oil is going down… But investors fear that if the economy comes to a normal level, a slowdown will follow.
Another thing that’s bringing anxiety to the financial world is the fact that many companies are set to announce their third-quarter results, and many investors are having negative predictions.

If you want to read more about the bouncing financial market, be sure to visit Financial News.

President of the United States, Mr. George Bush, president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy and president of the European Commision Jose Barroso have decided to join numerous summits in order to discuss the current financial crisis in the whole world. They had a meeting and they promised that they will work hard for better times.

The first summit will be all about “finding ways to prevent these kind of failures in the future”, while the following summits will be held around the subject of “finding the principles to be able to do that.”

We hope this will be successful… Otherwise, we’re in trouble.

Financial bonds in Europe are hitting the lowest mark in the last ten years. The whole benchmark is worth around 540 billion euros, and the bonds are mainly issued by financial institutions such as banks, insurance companies and such. The London’s bond index fell to 84.87 which is the lowest in the last ten years.

United States bonds are facing a downfall after the Treasury Department did $50 billion in debt sales to easy “dislocations” caused by the state of the financial market.
“People are very nervous, so they’re holding onto their collateral.”, said Mr. Konstam, a Credit Suisse representative.

Investors are very careful and fearful these days… They don’t want to make a mistake and don’t invest in anything that shows signs of being risky. In the bonds department, junk-bond yields are becoming very high (going into double digits). Of course, when yields rise, the price of the bonds is going down. Because of this, we are now in a position when we can buy bonds at a discount price of twenty percent or even more.

“Everyone wants quality… That’s why most people are afraid of buying high-yield bonds.” says Cecilia Gondor, a financial expert from Miami.
Some of the high-yield funds are: Highland Credit Strategies Fund, BlackRock High Income Shares, Van Kampen Dynamic Credit Opportunities Fund and many more.

Given the current state of the market, this might be a good thing to look into.