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Retirement
The Not-So-Easy Steps to Investing Success
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While investors will always be looking for ways to time the markets, there are no shortcuts to investing success. Retirement Director Ben Rizzuto considers the lessons to be learned from the recent GameStop trading activity and outlines three steps to building a strategic long-term investing plan.
Fixed Income Insights
Market Overview: Collateralized Loan Obligations
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Collateralized Loan Obligations (CLOs) are managed portfolios of bank loans that have been securitized into different instruments of varying credit risk and thus varying credit ratings.
Market Outlooks
AAM Viewpoints: A Look Back at the One-Year Anniversary of the Municipal Bond Market Selloff of 2020
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As we approach the March Anniversary of the massive short-term sell-off of the Municipal Market, we can’t help but think of how resilient the bond market is and how important the Federal Reserve is for stabilizing our markets.
Market Outlooks
AAM Viewpoints: Buying Low and Selling High is Preferred
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The historically low yields of 2020 forced many income-seeking investors to take on additional risk. First, they may have increased their duration exposure to capture the higher yields offered by longer-dated maturities. Or secondly, they may have migrated to “riskier” assets such as high yield corporate bonds as fiscal and monetary policy aimed to stimulate economic growth.
Market Outlooks
AAM Viewpoints: The Low Yield Environment and Corporate Credit Trends
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Outside of the oil crises, U.S. real yields have never been lower and global negative yield debt reached a record $18.38 trillion on 12/11/20, and as of Tuesday, 2/16/21 stands at $14.74 trillion. The U.S. 10-year Treasury real yield hit an all-time low on 8/6/20 at -1.08% and again on 1/4/21. It now stands at -1.04%. The previous low was in December 2012 at -0.92%.
Market Outlooks
AAM Viewpoints: Municipals Do Their Best Tortoise Impression and Play Catch Up
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Slow and steady wins the race, or so says Aesop. After playing the post-COVID investment grade laggard for the majority of 2020, the municipal market’s consistent slow-paced nature has them playing catch up through the first 25 trading days of 2021. While municipals enjoyed a healthy 5.21% year-to-date return for 2020, that was still behind U.S. Treasuries by 279 bps (basis points) as well as U.S. Investment Grade Corporates by a staggering 468 bps.
Retirement
Taking Stock of Emergency Savings Account Options
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The events of the past year have reinforced the importance of being financially prepared for unexpected emergencies. Retirement Director Ben Rizzuto discusses some of the options – both inside and outside of retirement plans – that are available for plan sponsors and business owners to help employees build up adequate savings.
Market Outlooks
AAM Viewpoints: The Pandemic: A Credit Epilogue
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Introduction: While the COVID-19 crisis is not yet over, with cases recently spiking again, the vaccines are being administered and there appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel. It still remains to be seen whether new consumer behavior will stick or revert to pre-pandemic patterns.
Macroeconomic & Geopolitical
Japan Equities Outlook: What Can Tuna Auctions Tell Us About Future Market Trends?
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Junichi Inoue, Head of Japanese Equities, discusses why the Japanese stock market performed well last year despite its cyclicality and shares his outlook for a recovery in 2021.