Bill Gross Says European Bonds Are Becoming More Attractive

(Bloomberg) — Bill Gross is finding opportunities in Europe after surprising election results in the region rattled markets and sent French bond yields to their highest mark this year.

“There’s coming a point where European bonds are more attractive than Treasury bonds, in my opinion,” Gross, the co-founder and former chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management Co. said on Bloomberg Television Monday. “In terms of attraction, the German 10-year bunds and French 10-year, their spreads have narrowed significantly in the past month or two relative to Treasuries and today as well.”

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Gross spoke the day after two of Europe’s most influential leaders, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Olaf Scholz, suffered surprise defeats in Sunday’s European Parliament elections at the hands of the far-right. Macron called a snap election following the vote as traders pushed the yield on 10-year French bonds more than 12 basis points higher to 3.23%, the highest mark since November. German and Italian bonds similarly sold off on Monday.

According to Gross, the recent experience of other elections in Mexico, India and South Africa — where surprise results upended markets and torpedoed once-reliable macro trades — also offers a guide for how the US campaign might impact assets come November.

“What we’ve seen last night and what we’ve seen the last few weeks is a reaction to uncertainty, in terms of not only the party that’s dominating, but uncertainty as to what their policies will be,” Gross said.“As we move to November, and something becomes more clear as to who might or who might not win, the uncertainty plus the potential policy implications could impact Treasuries significantly.”

While Gross said there could be a “problem” for the stock market as the economy slows, he still finds a few areas attractive. Gross reiterated his preference for pipeline master limited partnerships, including Energy Transfer LP and Western Midstream Partners LP. He also likes some regional bank stocks, such as KeyCorp, Truist Financial Corp. and Citizens Financial Group Inc. In addition, Gross owns Microsoft as an artificial intelligence play, as well as NextEra Energy, a utility company.

—With assistance from Romaine Bostick and Alix Steel.

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