Oil, Gold Show Inflation; TIPS Traders Say Forget It

Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Just because oil trades above $100 a barrel, gold fetches more than $900 an ounce and U.S. consumer prices climb at the fastest rate in two years, now is not the time to buy U.S. government securities protected from inflation.

That, at least, is the conclusion of Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., Vanguard Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., FAF Advisors and Blackrock Inc., which oversee about $1.5 trillion in fixed-income assets. Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, which produced the best returns for government debt last year, will prove disappointing in 2008, as the economy struggles with myriad signs of its first recession in six years, the money managers say.