report by BlackRock
- Filter:
- Clear Filters
Results for ""
Market Outlooks
'Where is it?'
This piece is approved to use with clients.
The money, that is. Despite massive stimulus, lending and spending have yet to perk up.
Market Outlooks
Less of zero
This piece is approved to use with clients.
The Fed has been outspoken against negative rates, and a U-shaped recovery could shorten the period they are pinned to zero.
Active/Passive Management
Turbulent times call for a little ballast
This piece is approved to use with clients.
And investors may find some by including a balanced approach in their portfolios.
Market Outlooks
Weekly Market Snapshot: May 29, 2020
This piece is approved to use with clients.
Read the Weekly Market Snapshot to stay up-to-date with stock markets and sectors, bond market returns and financial news for the week.
Market Outlooks
Replay Market Monitor – Evaluating Opportunities and Risks
Today’s market has eclipsed both the Global Financial Crisis and Tech Bubble in terms of the underperformance of value investing - this call is an opportunity to hear directly from the investment team how BMO interprets these events and reacts to them via proprietary tools and processes.
Fixed Income Insights
May 2020 Fixed Income Market Update
This piece is approved to use with clients.
In our view, the markets feel much healthier at the end of April than a month ago, but underappreciated in the improved sentiment is not only the scale of March policy action, but its continuation into April. Actions announced in April would ordinarily have remained in headlines and discussion for weeks, but the nearly half trillion dollar U.S. fiscal stimulus package has been treated almost as a footnote to its much larger cousin in March. Similarly, Fed and other central banks not only continued to implement the massive programs initiated last month, but significantly expanded on them.
Market Outlooks
What’s next for China?
This piece is approved to use with clients.
As the first country to tackle COVID-19, China has institutional investors globally wondering about the local situation – and what it means for their portfolios. June Lui, Portfolio Manager, BMO LGM Investments, gives an on-the-ground assessment of China’s economic backdrop and the impact on stocks.
Market Outlooks
The enemy of a major economic slump is debt
This piece is approved to use with clients.
This is a hard commentary to write. The situation is obviously very grave but also extremely fluid and no one has any special or privileged insight as to when a degree of normality may return. All pandemics end but it would be foolish on our part to suggest that it will be over within a few months. What is clear is that the world is tumbling into a serious global recession with significant unemployment. When both supply and demand collapse the end result is obvious and unavoidable. Governments and central banks have thrown several kitchen sinks at the crisis but with a world in lock-down it does little to lift economic activity. Expenses go up but incomes go down.
Fixed Income Insights
Municipal Yields Have Converged
This piece is approved to use with clients.
Over the past several weeks, yields between short- and intermediate-term Municipal Bonds have converged. This may be an opportunity for investors to significantly reduce interest rate risk while sacrificing minimal income since shorter-term bonds typically have less sensitivity to rates.
Market Outlooks
Virus starts with v but ends with u-shaped
This piece is approved to use with clients.
2020 began largely as we expected from an economic perspective, but as the first quarter ended it was difficult even to remember what “normal” economic times looked like, that is, before COVID-19 mushroomed and became a global health crisis.
Before the situation deteriorated in late February, many economists expected the economic effects of the virus to be primarily felt in the first and second quarters with a “v-shaped” recovery to follow. Now many expect a “u-shaped” recovery occurring perhaps by year-end. Economic indicators can lag the headlines, but U.S. unemployment had already begun to spike as the first quarter ended with more to come, likely climbing to double digits as large segments of the economy remain shut down in an effort to contain the virus. We have seen second-quarter annualized GDP estimates ranging from -5% to -30%, but the unprecedented combination of a pandemic and the modern global economy makes this very difficult to call. The numbers will be painful, regardless of the precise magnitude. In terms of the human cost, the pain is already acute.
Market Outlooks
Corporate credit spreads widened aggressively in March 2020
This piece is approved to use with clients.
Credit markets have seen extreme repricing over the past month as a result of the market stress caused by coronavirus and its impact to the economy. The period through March 26 saw some of the most aggressive corporate spread widening in history, with the worst days experiencing almost twice as much widening as any day in 2008. Global investment grade corporate credit spreads reached 340 basis points after having started the year at 102, and we saw global high yield spreads widen past 1,000 basis points as an index, which is generally the level considered the threshold for individual bonds to be considered part of distressed indices.
Market Outlooks
Examining the relationship between social distancing and economic activity
This piece is approved to use with clients.
As the global spread of COVID-19 continues, the United States’ timeline to practice social distancing has now been extended through the end of April. The crisis continues to evolve, leading to questions of how long the social distance measures will remain, how severe will the infection rate get, and when will peak cases be reached. Gauging the length of these measures is crucial to anticipate the economic impacts to U.S. businesses and consumers.