Relationship between interest rate and bond prices

Question

What is the relationship among interest rate and bond prices? Is there any difference among T-Bills versus Corporate bonds in reaching your assessment? Whenever the stock market falls, where do you assume that most investor place their money and why?

Answer 1

As the interest rate increases, the bond prices decline. Suppose a bond (face value $1000) paying an annual interest of $100 was purchased when the interest rate is 10% as well. If it is to be sold currently where the interest rate is 12%, when current bonds would pay an interest rate of $120, its price need to be lowered so that it attracts investors. The price an investor may be willing to buy this bond which matures in a year can be determined as:

Price of bond = Amount to be paid in one year/(1+interest rate in the market)

Thus bond price and interest rates are inversely related (Gamber & Colander, 2006). Yes, there are differences between T-bills vs Corporate bonds. Corporate bonds are issued by corporations to raise capital for investing in their new projects and operations, whereas T-bills are issued by the Government to decrease money supply or any other reasons. It is possible for a company to go bankrupt and default on the bonds but it is much less probable for governments to default on bonds. Hence in my assessment, T-bills are much safer as compared to corporate bonds.

Whenever the stock market falls, it may be due to any reason such as a declining economy, recession, etc. In such a period, it is highly probable that companies make much lower profits than expected and some companies may even default in their obligations. Hence I suppose that most investors place their money on bonds, which are much safer than the stock market and especially the government bonds, because they are the safest and also just have lower interest rates, which can be easily paid off by the US government.