Safety has its rewards.
woodleywonderworks
Treasury Building
Fixed-income investors are once again looking sage-like, as the latest eruption in the EU crisisravages equities.
The U.S. Treasury marketrally, which has pushed yields to yet new historic lows, has come at a time when only the most ardent investors expected more gains — and without any help from the Federal Reserve's monetary policy.
Meanwhile, the major U.S. stock market indicesare down some 5 percent, erasing gains for 2012. The Nasdaq has suffered the worst, losing 6.1 percent.
The latest leg of the multi-year rally started in early May, when both Greece and France elected new leaders to guide them through the seemingly never-ending sovereign debt crisis and its undermining of the single European currency pact.
Retail investors who decided to ride Treasurys through exchange traded fundshave done quite nicely during the last three weeks.
Below are the 10 best-performing, fixed income ETFs, with price changes covering the May 4-May 22 period.
Two funds stand out: Pimco's 25+Year Zero Coupon US Treasury Index ETF and Vanguard's Extended Duration Treasury Index ETF , with both notching returns of more than 7 percent.