report by BlackRock
Results for ""
Market Outlooks
2021 Market GPS: Diversified Alternatives Outlook
The message to take away from 2020 is that the rules are changing. Traditional fiscal and monetary policy has been replaced by exceptional measures to prop up economies and protect jobs in the face of a global pandemic, while increasingly antagonistic relations between countries have ushered in an era of heightened macro and political uncertainty.
Head of Diversified Alternatives David Elms and Diversified Alternatives Portfolio Managers Steve Cain and Aneet Chachra consider the impact of 2020 on investment markets. They explore some of the areas they are looking at as potential risks (and opportunities) for investors as we move into 2021 and explain why they believe that investors should look beyond traditional investment vehicles for real diversification and volatility mitigation.
Fixed Income Insights
2021 Market GPS: Fixed Income Outlook
Market behaviour in 2020 was all about flows: liquidity flooding the markets, a disease travelling through the population, global supply chains reconfiguring, and technology streaming work and entertainment to the masses. Jim Cielinski, Global Head of Fixed Income at Janus Henderson, explains that fixed income is sensitive to flows, and their direction in 2021 will help determine how the asset class navigates the year ahead.
Fixed Income Insights
The Shape of Credit
This piece is approved to use with clients.
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.
Fixed Income Insights
Building Bond Portfolios on a Strong Housing Market
This piece is approved to use with clients.
Conventional wisdom would suggest that rising unemployment would have discouraged consumers from making large contractual obligations like buying a new home, but the pandemic has affected the way many Americans think about housing. Portfolio Managers John Kerschner and Nick Childs discuss why this is happening and what it could mean for bond investors.
Portfolio Construction Insights
Portfolio Diagnostics Report: Shifting Gears
This piece is approved to use with clients.
For traditional fixed income investors, much of the last 40 years have been a relatively enjoyable ride; the 1980s began with double-digit interest rates that have steadily fallen, creating large amounts of bond return and income as well as crisis management along the way. Instead of investors paying a premium for portfolio crisis management, traditional fixed income paid investors that premium.
Investing Ideas
Securitized Market Overview
This piece is approved to use with clients.
Securitizations are financial instruments created via the bundling of contractual debts, such as mortgages, or other assets that generate receivables, such as franchise fees. These bundles are then sold to investors, who collect the income from the underlying obligations.
Investing Ideas
Whitepaper: The Case for CLOs
This piece is approved to use with clients.
Key Takeaways
- CLOs offer portfolios of floating-rate bank loans securitized across the rating spectrum. The availability of floating-rate bonds is limited in the U.S., and the choices for high quality floating-rate securities is even more limited, yet around 80% of CLOs carry a credit rating from A to AAA.
- Relative to the investment-grade corporate credit market, CLOs have offered a consistent yield premium across the rating spectrum, in some cases as much as two times the yield offered over U.S. Treasuries.
- In an environment where interest rates are low and the risk of higher Treasury yields has risen, allocations to AAA rated CLOs may help investors diversify a traditional fixed income portfolio, offering lower volatility, higher credit-quality and less sensitivity to any rise in interest rates.