30 year Bond Bull Coming to An End?

I was looking through the newswires tonight and I noticed in my mining feed that TECK has announced pricing of $750M worth of 7 and 30 year notes priced at 3.85% and 6.00% respectively. They are using the funds to retire 9.75% and 10.25% notes which gives them quite a bit of savings on the interest which would be in excess of $100M for sure. Not chump change by any means, but still, really quite a bit of mundane news in itself.

What I am taking from this news more than anything is that TECK's decision to issue new longterm notes and retire higher interest debt, has more to do with where the company sees future interests going. If one thinks that interest rates are going to rise in the future then companies are going to start making these types of corporate decisions and locking in while paper is as cheap as it is.

Are interest rates going up tomorrow? I doubt it, but as you see more and more companies making these types of decisions you know that general attitude in the corporate sector is that rates will rise. Once the global economy gets through this uncertain economic stretch and economies return to more normal levels of growth, rates will rise to keep the economy from being overheated. On the other hand, if the currency crisis reappears, rates will go up in order to support the currencies. It will become a choice of saving buying power versus stiffling economic growth at home.

At this point in time, countries are trying to debase their currencies and as long as this strategy stays in place, interest rates will remain artificially low, but doesn't mean they cannot rise from the absolute rock bottom prices where they are without that strategy being affected too much. Interest rates have to go up. If the economy gets used to cheap paper. Like a highly addictive drug. It will never get off, and when it does, you will see severe pain.

One trade that I am researching to take advantage of when it happens is to short the bond market. Interest rates have been on the decline since the early 80's to a point where they can't get any lower and as a result the bond market has been in a super bull which I believe is nearing an end. Don't go out and short the bond market just yet as a correction this fall will push the bond market up as a place to hide, but once economies return to normal or countries are forced to raise rates because of downward spiraling currencies, The SuperBull in Bonds will be over!