Manager of the world’s biggest bond fund, Bill Gross of Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co., bought into Treasury bonds for the first time in a year December.
The bonds made up 9% of the $132 billion Total Return Fund, up from negative 4% the month earlier, according to an article from Bloomberg.
Gross, the co-chief investment officer of the company, had expressed regret in missing the Treasury market’s biggest rally in 13 years.
In December he told Bloomberg, “If we went back 12 months and we had known then what we know now, it would have been all invested in Treasuries.”
It’s not known whether the December buying marks a new strategy for the fund or is a shorter-term adjustment.
Gross has also made bearish statements over government bonds, saying the yields were too low to make them attractive, and that some of its sectors were showing signs of a bubble.
For 2008, Gross’s fund yielded 4.81% compared to 5.24% from the Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Index that it uses as a benchmark.
The Total Return fund still holds fewer government bonds than the benchmark index, which has about 38% invested in them.
Last month Gross also sold mortgage-backed bonds, reducing the fund’s stake to 62% from 81% from a month earlier, according to Bloomberg.
Recent recommendations from Gross include municipal bonds, inflation-protected Treasuries and bonds being targeted for investment from the government.
Pimco manages $790 billion in assets and is part of Munich-based insurer Allianz SE.
