DSU News and Press, Blackrock Debt Strategies Fund Inc. From 07/07/21

During much of last quarter, the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow model indicated an annual rate over 10% for the second quarter, but last Friday, they downgraded their estimate to the lowest number we’ve seen since the quarter began - an annual pace of just 7.8%, down from +8.6% on Jul...

Risk-adjusted performance for the Global Market Index (GMI) continued to push higher in June, based on the annualized Sharpe ratio for a rolling ten-year window via monthly data. GMI’s 10-year SR increased to 0.84, the highest in 18 months. GMI is an unmanaged, market-value...

The expected risk premium for the Global Market Index (GMI) resumed an upward drift in June, rising to an annualized 6.0%. The current risk premium forecast for GMI - 6.0% - suggests that multi-asset-class strategies will generate lower returns relative to results posted in recent yea...

MSCI US REIT Index rallied 2.7% in June, which marks an impressive run of eight consecutive monthly increases. The Russell 3000 Index jumped 2.5% in June, the fifth straight monthly advance. Comparing GMI to US stocks and bonds shows that global asset allocation remains competitiv...

US inflation continued to soar in May, with the Core Consumer Price Index up 0.7% month over month and 3.8% year over year. Fears around rising rates center on the rapidly recovering US economy, which will soon require tapering of purchases in the US Federal Reserve’s quantitat...

Rising Star volume gains momentum as the global economy continues its recovery, which we believe will provide attractive total return opportunity in Fixed Income. Over the course of 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic adversely impacted fundamentals and markets, we experienced a new record...

With the economic recovery undeniably ramping up, we ask managers for their thoughts on valuations in the markets. While lockdowns were protracted affairs for so many of us, the economic recovery has been astoundingly rapid in many parts of the world. Regardless of the shift in to...

The question is - given the low in March ’09 and the previous highs exceeded in late April ’13 - is the secular bull market 13 years old or just a little over 8 years old, and does it matter? Not only are the S&P 500 and Nasdaq bumping all-time highs, but Europe and ...

US high yield bond spreads are near historical lows amid a strong macro backdrop. The Fed’s future actions could put upward pressure on the US HY OAS, but we believe that to be a ways off. Investor allocations to HY bond funds are subdued. Excessive optimism isn’t ap...

This morning we learned that US retail spending fell 1.3% in May (more than the -.80 expected). Commodities have been sensing the shift, with the price of many key inputs like lumber (-42%), steel rebar (-18%) and copper (-9%) down sharply from recent peaks. Increases in oil, gas ...