BKT News and Press, BlackRock Income Trust Inc. From 09/08/22

Summary BKT is a fixed income CEF that focuses on AAA Agency MBS bonds. The CEF displays a performance similar to the better-known mREITs NLY and AGNC. With the quantitative tightening program set to ramp up this September and with a housing market that is just beginning its d...

The U.S. MBS agency market had another bounce-back outing in July, alternating good and bad months since the start of 2022. Real money accounts require a somewhat calmer setting, and Asian investors are quiet as the U.S. dollar continues to trounce all other currencies. Year to da...

Now, most recently, the Russian war with Ukraine and its shock to energy and commodity markets, at a time when inflation was already running hot, has added greatly to investor concerns. While retirement planners and long-term liability managers often need to take on duration to hedge ...

Today, the US economy can be characterized by late cycle (perhaps even end cycle) with a stagflationary regime. A stagflationary regime is one where there is high and rising inflation combined with low or negative growth. Investing during this regime can be difficult. Eventually, ...

Mortgage rates have climbed this year at one of the fastest paces on record. Yields on agency mortgage-backed securities have soared to 4.17% in July 2022 from 1.98% in January. The Fed’s involvement in the agency MBS market is not uniform, and certain pockets of the sector wil...

Although mortgage rates have stabilized a bit, they remain at some of the highest levels since 2008 and have been heading marginally higher in the past week. Given the slight rise in rates, demand for mortgages continues to predict further weakness in upcoming home sales data. Not...

If inflation and rate increases do not rise above current market expectations, however, there is a case for longer-duration instruments. Asset allocation models are well documented across the investment universe, and portfolio diversification is a widely accepted principle. Histor...

BlackRock Advisors, LLC released today share repurchase activity for certain BlackRock closed-end funds (the “Funds”) during the quarter ended June 30, 2022. The Funds have authorized open market share repurchase programs (the “Repurchase Programs”) pursuant ...

We review CEF market valuation and performance through the first week of June and highlight recent market action. The CEF space was down marginally this week as the previously strong rally stalled. We discuss why we are less worried about relatively low distribution coverage in th...

It certainly has been an extraordinary period of weakness for the bond market with the most rapid rising yields that we’ve seen in decades. But the other side of the coin is that now that yields are at these higher levels, bonds represent a much more interesting investment oppo...