Tug of War: Vaccine Optimism versus Surging COVID Cases and Policy Uncertainty
While the world has cheered news of a vaccine on the horizon, it will not be available in time to help fight the recent surge in new cases of the virus.
Now that yields have reset higher, bonds are positioned to protect portfolios while delivering higher income.
Floating-rate income and the secured nature of senior loans may provide a valuable defense against both rising rates and higher default risk for investors able to stomach short-term volatility.
The prospect of rising real interest rates favors value versus growth stocks, while moderating economic growth and persistent inflation favor inexpensive stability value names over well-priced cyclicals.
While the world has cheered news of a vaccine on the horizon, it will not be available in time to help fight the recent surge in new cases of the virus.
On October 16, 2020, the central counterparties (CCPs) of the London Clearing House (LCH) and Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)
revised the discounting and price alignment interest (PAI) of U.S.-dollar cleared interest rate swaps to use the secured overnight
financing rate (SOFR).
Going forward, being nimble and remaining selective will be critical to identifying attractive new opportunities.
We continue to believe that risk-assets are worth the discomfort of uncertainty.
The Bank of Japan has failed to reach its inflation target for decades—is the Fed heading down a similar path?
There are still opportunities to prepare portfolios today for the low-yield world ahead—we see the most value in select areas of the CMBS market.
Risk across the entire commercial mortgage-backed securities market is being viewed through the narrow lens of two troubled sub-sectors.
Market sentiment is looking ahead to the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, probably in the first half of 2021, when an effective vaccine is widely distributed. An end date on the horizon is certainly a good thing for stocks.
Fixed income markets have staged a significant recovery since April — the focus is finally starting to shift back to fundamentals.
We expect a big bounce in 3Q20 global growth, but because an effective COVID-19 vaccine is unlikely until mid- to late-2021, further gains in 4Q20 and 1H21 will prove more difficult.