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Although risk-free yields have nudged up a bit after seven years of Fed ZIRP (zero interest rate policy) from 2008 to 2015, the desirability of investment grade or bank insured yield vehicles remains muted. Indeed, with the 10-year Treasury continuing to sit sub-two percent and the Fed easing ...
By Tracy Chen, CFA, CAIA In part one , we provided an in-depth analysis of CLO tranches, including the factors driving their spreads. While each tranche has been influenced by varying forces, we noted the fundamentals for the overall market have deteriorated, particularly relative to high...
Based on the original article, which can be found here . There is a potentially big opportunity for the insurance-linked securities (ILS) markets to develop parametric cat bonds that could cover some of the growing risks in Eastern Europe and Western areas of Asia. For a wide range ...
As the drums of the U.S.-China trade war beat louder, one has to keep in the back of one's mind where the point of no return is. It is probably not a specific "point," but a gray area that is a moving target, depending on how badly the U.S. and other global economies get hurt. For example, hur...
To many onlookers, since the great financial crisis, the world of fixed income securities has become an alien landscape. Yields on government bonds have fallen steadily across all developed markets. As the chart below reveals, there is now a record US$13trln+ of negative-yielding fixed income ...
We were waiting for new tariffs on China and instead got new tariffs on Mexico, a country that has agreed to a new trade deal to replace the old NAFTA. Clearly, using tariffs to resolve immigration issues is an innovative tool, but does it really solve anything? Many of the immigrants Presid...
Musings May was a particularly weird month in a weird period for the markets (though I suppose that could be said about most times). The furious rally from the December 2018 lows (spurred by the narratives of a cool-headed Fed and Administration) fizzled spectacularly against the realities...
One of the lessons of the past few decades' boom/bust cycles is that each financial bubble emerges in a different asset class. In the 1970s it was precious metals, in the 1980s junk bonds, in the 1990s tech stocks and in the 2000s mortgage-backed bonds. Today, the only one of these with a re...
The Corporate Maginot Line Since the post-financial crisis era began more than a decade ago, record low interest rates and the Fed's acquisition of $4 trillion of the highest quality fixed-income assets have led investors to scratch and claw for any asset, regardless of quality, offering r...
By Vladimir Nikulin, CFA During the last week, the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF ( HYG ) declined by 0.46% primarily due to monthly dividend payments last week. HYG's underlying portfolio demonstrated neutral performance (0.0%) due to lack of positive news during the last w...