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Policy and Regulatory Commentary
Working on “Political Time”
As all of Washington – and, in fact, the United States – awaits news from the Capitol confirming that leaders in Congress have formally reached an agreement on another COVID relief bill, an infuriating truth is once again resurfaced.
Investing Ideas
Investing in Diversity: Analyzing the Investment Risks and Opportunities
This piece is approved to use with clients.
Olivia Gull, Analyst on the Governance and Responsible Investment Team, discusses the importance of diversity and inclusion from an investment perspective, and key indicators that investors can look out for when analyzing a company’s diverse culture.
Investing Ideas
Technology Fuels Long-Term Growth Prospects for Manufacturing
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Assistant Portfolio Manager David Chung discusses the ongoing recovery in the manufacturing sector and how technological innovation is helping drive longer-term growth in certain industries.
Investing Ideas
Whitepaper: The Case for Active Management within Agency MBS
Investors should consider an allocation to agency MBS because, as an asset class with little to no credit risk, it has historically delivered strong absolute and risk-adjusted returns, with low correlation to equities. MBS have demonstrated their defensive capabilities across a variety of market conditions, making it an attractive asset class in today’s environment. MBS’ favorable liquidity profile combined with its inherent complexity creates alpha opportunities, making it an attractive candidate to potentially add both alpha and diversity in sources of return to an investor’s portfolio.
Policy and Regulatory Commentary
A Team of Rivals? No
“To me it appears evident that an executive ministry composed of men with the qualifications I have described would speedily restore the credit of government abroad and at home, would induce our allies to greater exertions in our behalf, would inspire confidence in monied men in Europe as well as in America to lend us ⟨those⟩ sums of which it may be demonstrated we ⟨stand⟩ in need from the disproportion of our national wealth to the expenses of the War.”
Policy and Regulatory Commentary
Congress’ Cup Runeth Over
Last week, we discussed midnight regulations – last-minute rulemakings rushed through federal agencies by departing presidents in the twilights of their terms.
Fixed Income Insights
The Shape of Credit
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In this Q&A, Portfolio Managers Jason England, Nick Maroutsos and Dan Siluk discuss the factors shaping credit markets, from central bank support to potential resilience from financials.
Key Takeaways
- Corporate earnings and cash flows are under strain, but while defaults are likely to increase, they should continue to be largely contained to sub-investment-grade issuers.
- Massive and proactive central bank support measures have injected confidence into markets, but this does not preclude sporadic bouts of future volatility and warrants a selective approach.
- We believe more resilient opportunities are likely to be found in higher-quality, shorter-dated investment-grade issues and continue to favor financial sector bonds and corporates with defensive attributes.