KIO News and Press, KKR Income Opportunities Fund From 05/05/21

Today's post rolls out the inaugural Risk Review column for the major asset classes, a monthly update that's the companion piece to the monthly performance report and risk-premia estimates. Risk analysis is a broad and deep subject and so this monthly update will be no one's idea of a...

When I started in the financial business, calculators were few and far between, and pencil and paper were our primary analytical tools. Forget about computers and spreadsheets. Now we have a plethora of tools and data. But the basic questions - what is important? and what does it mean...

There has been much commentary suggesting bonds have gotten overvalued due to historically low rates. At current rates, economic growth will likely very quickly return to sub-2% growth by 2022. Are bonds overvalued? No. But stocks are, and the bond market is ringing alarm bells wa...

The underlying quality mix in the high yield market is at an all-time high. The high yield market has benefited in recent years from reduced levels in two key drivers of ratings downgrades and default triggers. High yield new issuance set a record during 2020. For further de...

BGH has a focus on short-duration in the high-yield space. The fund currently trades at a discount that is quite appealing considering the alternatives, though they invest lower on the credit quality spectrum. The fund currently sports a 7.84% yield that is fully covered. Fo...

The average CCC-or-below rated junk bonds have yielded between 7.09% and 7.16% over the past two weeks, a new all-time record low. AMC Entertainment, which has been talking about how it is trying to stave off a bankruptcy filing, issued $500 million of secured notes in April 2020 to g...

In today’s low-yield landscape, income investors find themselves depending on higher-yielding investments such as bank loans, high-yield bonds and dividend-paying equities. Reaching for yield can be especially dangerous for income investors because of sequence risk - the risk o...

The bond market is partying like it's 1999, and there is no end in sight. Despite wide spreads and tight spreads, bonds still need to be bought by insurance companies, money managers, university endowments and other institutions that have ratings partially based upon their bond positi...

A normal corporate high-yield allocation in client accounts if you look across model portfolios is roughly 10%-15%. The clients that can handle that risk have been closer to 20% (or more) for most of 2020, but that overweight is now being reduced. With most macroeconomic and forecasti...

The first quarter of 2021 brought what the Asset Allocation Committee expected, and as it looks to the next six to 12 months, it faces two questions. Do we think the economy will overheat, pushing bond yields to levels that unsettle equity markets or even force central banks to stifle...