Stocks Down, Bonds... Down??

So my stocks are ⬇️, how come my bonds are also ⬇️??? I thought bonds were supposed to go ⬆️ when stocks went⬇️!?!?

Well, what kinds of bonds do you own?
It turns out that some bonds are better than others when it comes to diversifying a portfolio.
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YTD, through 4/15/2025, the S&P 500 is down -8.3%
iShares High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) is down -0.3%
iShares Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD) is up 0.4%
iShares Long U.S. Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) is up 1.6%
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In fact, over the last 15 years, TLT is the only bond ETF of those 3 that is negatively correlated with stocks (-0.09).
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The investment grade bond ETF has an average correlation of positive 0.45 with the S&P 500.
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The high yield bond ETF has an average correlation of positive 0.74! This means that lower rated or “junk” bonds tend to perform similarly to stocks over a long period of time.
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When we look at recent history, the rolling 36mo correlation between stocks and these 2 corporate bond funds is near an all-time high! (See below)

This means they are likely to deliver even less diversification benefits today than they did historically.
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Some questions to ask a financial advisor:
1) What kinds of bonds do I own?
2) How did you decide to invest my money in these bonds?
3) What is the goal or purpose of these bond investments?
4) Have the bonds been performing in the way that you anticipated? Why or why not?
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If you would like to learn more about the benefits of portfolio diversification, click Book A Meeting

Corporate bonds are highly correlated with stocks, and thus, are not a good diversifier to equities.