Compared to the equity market, the bond market is more or less a staid affair. Yields move around daily but normally not enough to ruffle the feathers of equity investors. However, this week, bonds took centre stage, as the yield on the benchmark 10-year bond shot up over 5 percent, to the highest level in nearly a year.

The stock market, fuelled on cheap money and resultant abundant liquidity, obviously doesn't like the prospect of higher rates and sold off heavily on Wednesday and Thursday. In a highly leveraged global economy, rising interest rates are like Kryptonite.

However, while we believe there are building inflationary pressures in the global and US economy, rising rates are not likely to bring the bull market to a screaming halt just yet. In this week's bond market report we look at the issue in more detail and discuss what this all means for investors.

And while the market's attention has seemingly only just turned to interest rates and inflation, the concern is nothing new to us. In fact, one of our long held beliefs is that inflation is making a comeback in the global financial system, to the benefit of assets such as gold. One of our favoured exposures to this is through the MarketVectors Gold Miners ETF.

Also a commodity play, oil and gas heavyweight XTO Energy has just announced a significant addition to their portfolio of petroleum assets. XTO's track record of developing properties to expand resources and production is nothing short of impressive. As a result, the news that the latest acquisition is their biggest yet is particularly exciting.

Another example of the market's changing sentiment is UK telecoms company BT Group. It wasn't so long ago that investors doubted the company would be a major force when it came to 'new wave' technologies. However, as fourth quarter results illustrate, BT is in fact leading the way…

It's not often that we have to remove a holding due to the stock's delisting. However, this week we are faced with just such a scenario for two of our holdings. The first is Imperial Chemical Industries, which has been a strong performer since inclusion in the Fat Prophets Portfolio. However, in order to reduce costs and relieve the burden of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance requirements, the company is delisting from the NYSE.

We are also removing Amcor, an Australian based global packaging giant from the portfolio due to an imminent delisting. However, the timing is sound as we are becoming increasingly concerned over the company's prospects. Rising energy prices and structural issues within the industry make selling Amcor an easy decision.