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 ...
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...
By Gershon Distenfeld and Will Smith The S&P 500 Index hit an all-time high on April 23, thanks to improving investor optimism. But for some equity investors, market highs signal a good time to reduce downside risk. There are additional reasons investors may want to trim their sails....