The dynamic factor Markov-switching (DFMS) model introduced by Diebold and Rudebusch (1996) has proven to be a powerful framework to measure the business cycle. We extend the DFMS model by allowing for time-varying transition probabilities, with the aim of accelerating the real-time dating of...

We build on the work of Wright and Zhou (2009) who show that the average jump mean in bond prices can predict excess bond returns, capturing the countercyclical behaviour of risk premia. We show that these jumps often take place at 8:30 and 10:00 directly linking them to specific macroeconomic...