FLGV News and Press, Franklin Liberty U.S. Treasury Bond From 01/05/21

Large cap growth and mid-cap growth saw the return differentials narrow between it and "value" the last 12 weeks, but the longer-term return differential has been substantial favoring growth since 2017. The 12-week total return in mid-cap in Q4 '20 was 22% and in small-cap it was 28.6...

With the exception of broadly defined commodities and US and foreign property shares, global markets posted solid gains last year. US stocks were the top 2020 performers, with the Russell 3000 Index surging 20.9% last year. US REITs saw the deepest loss for the major asset classes...

The President-elect has mentioned countless themes that will call for additional Treasury bonds to be issued. The cost in interest, alone, will be significant. The yields on America's sovereign debt will not go unnoticed, and the push will be on for the Fed to lower our interest rates...

Anyone with connectivity can communicate, advertise and interface today with extraordinary ubiquity, and at virtually no cost. This was the case before the 2020 pandemic completely turbocharged this phenomenon, which leaves profound implications for the post-pandemic world. With recen...

The S&P 500 slipped 0.2% (up 14.6% y-t-d), while the Dow was little changed (up 5.8%). Three-month Treasury bill rates ended the week at 0.08%. For the week, the U.S. dollar index increased 0.2% to 90.223 (down 6.5% y-t-d). For further details see: Weekly Commentary:...

According to recent data from global index provider FTSE Russell, US Treasuries have become expensive compared to other major sovereign bond markets over the last four years, as measured by US yield spreads versus the FTSE World Government Bond Index excluding the US (WGBI ex. US). Du...

This bull market has been led by growth stocks, which is what we would expect from a strong dollar environment. The surge in growth stocks relative to value during the virus has been extreme. Like other domestic assets, US real estate has outperformed international. However, like EM s...

M1 money supply (the most liquid forms of cash - bills, checks and basic savings accounts) had grown faster than any time in history. This could be due to Biden's promised termination of the special capital gains tax rate that is lower than tax on regular income. So, the rich are scra...

While most hope more stimulus will cure the economy's ills, the "2nd derivative effect" will be problematic. Of course, since vast portions of the stimulus package went to everything but "helping out the average American," such ensures the impact will be far less. During Q4-2020, not ...

Prior to the pandemic, Europe was facing unique challenges, including keeping the bloc together amid rising populism, uneven economic growth, troubled banking systems, Brexit, and more. While the core of Europe was likely facing prospects of negative interest rates for an extended per...