IGOV News and Press, iShares S&P/Citigroup International Treasury Bond From 01/29/20

By James J. Clarke How do we think about a world of ultra-low interest rates as equity investors? To us, interest rates are much more than determining what discount rate to use in a valuation model. At extreme levels, the rate environment introduces distortions that impact management behav...

Germany ( EWG ) is Europe's ( VGK , EZU , HEDJ , FEZ ) largest economy, and likely will remain so as far as the eye can see. However, things are far from being rosy, neither for the German economy nor for the German stock market. Germany seems to can't stop its free fall when it comes t...

Evaluating monetary tools available to central banks, why the Fed still has some ammunition, and why the ECB should adopt a review of its monetary policy framework Joseph Gagnon is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and formerly, a senior staffer at the F...

Credit markets have rallied significantly over the past few years, with spreads over Treasuries in the U.S., for example, dwindling to very tight levels alongside decreasing yields. At the same time, many investors have raised concerns over credit market volatility, liquidity, potential overva...

Introduction Earlier this week, JPMorgan Chase ( JPM ) CEO Jamie Dimon said that the only financial market bubble out there right now is in sovereign debt . First of all, it's important to note that in spite of this perceived bubble, JPM has increased its holdings in US government bonds...

"Relative Value" is always a consideration. It is perhaps the main consideration, until you have passed the line in the sand, which is what we have done now, in my estimation. Now it is a question of "Absolute Value" for fixed-income investors because the yields are so low in any bond asset cl...

Originally published on January 13, 2020 By Philip Lawlor, Managing Director, Head of Global Market Research Global equity markets rode some dramatic twists and turns in 2019, and factor performance followed suit. Our latest Factor Indicator report highlights the most notable theme in ...

Mid-yields on 10-year government bonds finished 2019 - and capped off the decade - with across-the-board increases. In fact, amid an ever-uncertain monetary policy environment, several government bond markets tracked by Tradeweb saw their yields rise by double digits over the course of Decembe...

By Scott DiMaggio, Gershon Distenfeld From a fraught geopolitical landscape to a global slowdown, the major systemic risks in today's investment landscape are impossible to ignore. We expect such risks to contribute to persistently low and negative yields as well as to bouts of volatility ...

We were thrilled to hear the experts/pundits speak on Friday as well as Barron's most recent roundtable of 10 experts write on Saturday about how cautious/pessimistic they are about the prospects for the financial markets in 2020. There clearly is no over exuberance or froth in the marketplace...