The US Treasury indicated it’s not looking to boost sales of notes and bonds until well into next year, in a decision that will see the government increasingly rely on bills to fund the budget deficit.

Following this year’s impressive rally in gold (the best year for the metal since 1972) investor attention has once again turned toward its role as a long-term portfolio component.

An advisor or allocator needs to do three things: understand the goals of their client, find different ways to earn returns for taking risks, and then take the right amount of risk to meet those goals.

October was a good month for financial markets, with a broad-based rally across geographies and sectors. Tech stocks and gold led the way, and the dollar finally had an up month. QuantStreet's strategies, across different risk levels, moved in line with or slightly exceeded benchmarks.

Classical conditioning teaches us a valuable lesson regarding the current investor dilemma. Pavlov’s research discovered a basic psychological rule: when a neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with a reward‑stimulus, eventually it will trigger the same response even when the reward is absent.

As policy priorities evolve, Japan’s focus on “responsible fiscal expansion” could reshape bond dynamics.

Investors are bracing for Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to lean more toward shorter maturities in the government’s funding mix to keep down long-term yields amid a mounting debt burden.

The Halloween week Fed meeting was more trick than treat for bonds with only a mild and temporary scare for stocks. As soon as Chair Powell signaled the next cut is “not a foregone conclusion – far from it!,” the Dow swooned before recovering about half the drop, while the 10-year drifted higher.

As global rate pressures ease and fundamentals strengthen across key economies, conditions appear increasingly favorable for EM local bonds and currencies.

For the second straight meeting, the Fed cut the federal funds rate by a quarter percent on Wednesday. In an even more aggressive move toward monetary easing, the FOMC also announced balance sheet reduction will end in December.

Gold is not immune to market cycles. It’s a volatile asset driven by shifting narratives and capital flows. If you’re buying gold today, understand what’s supporting the price, and what could shake that support loose. Treat gold as a hedge, not a core growth asset.

The Federal Reserve lowered its policy interest rate by 25 basis points, as widely expected. However, dissenting votes may cloud the path forward.

China’s ability to sustain fairly robust economic growth despite a massive property sector downturn is now facing new tests as global trade barriers rise, and domestic demand shows fresh signs of weakness.

Last week’s economic narrative centered around the Federal Reserve's latest rate cut, a decision complicated by the government shutdown and lack of economic data.

Rather than toil over the construction of an ideal fixed income portfolio for a client, advisors can simply apply a template primed for success using Vanguard’s model portfolios. On that note, Vanguard just introduced two new dynamic asset allocation fixed income model portfolios that can suit various investor profiles.

One of the most fundamental decisions facing fixed-income investors is determining the optimal maturity for their Treasury holdings.

US stocks are hovering near all-time highs, buoyed by the prospect of cooling trade tensions between the US and China as corporate America largely brushes off tariff pressures. But that doesn’t mean that Wall Street professionals will be sleeping easy this Halloween.

Long-dated bonds are looking more attractive as governments and central banks take steps to curb the glut in that segment of the market, according to JPMorgan Asset Management.

Meta Platforms Inc. found record-shattering demand for its bond sale on Thursday even as its shares plunged, in a sign that bond investors are looking past any concerns about its artificial-intelligence spending plans.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced a widely anticipated 25-basis-point (bp) rate cut, bringing the federal funds target range to 3.75%–4.00%. With markets priced for this move and the Fed operating in a data vacuum due to the U.S. government shutdown, the rate cut and modest statement changes were largely uneventful.

The Multi-Sector Credit Team share perspectives on the fixed income market and their quarterly asset allocation ranking. They highlight a timely chart to watch, explore relative value opportunities, and provide insight on their latest asset allocation scores by fixed income sub-sector.

The Powell put is on. The Federal Reserve chairman tried to sound like a hawk, but the central bank’s actions were those of a dove.

Treasuries fell the most in nearly five months after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell cast doubt on a December interest-rate cut, even as a sagging labor market prompted policymakers to bring down borrowing costs Wednesday.

Lazard Asset Management is betting the newfound appetite for emerging-market assets is only just starting, launching its first-ever exchange-traded fund focused on the region as investors look for ways to ride a rebound in international markets.

Part of the reason behind Japanese stocks’ discount to the U.S. is the profitability gap; the U.S. has a Return on Equity (ROE) of 18.3%, while Japan’s broad market has yet to break above 10% on that measure (though some forecasters believe Japan will get its act together).

The more things change, the more they stay the same. As widely expected, the Federal Reserve (Fed) cut interest rates by 0.25% at its October Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting yesterday.

With the stock market in record-high territory and up about 35% off the April lows, market participants clearly haven’t been too scared lately. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of things to worry about.

Stocks have surged since their April lows, with demand especially high for higher-risk equities and technology stocks—including those issued by firms with unproven profitability. But economic growth is slowing, and trade-related uncertainty has yet to be resolved.

The US Federal Reserve will soon face a crucial decision: What to do with the vast portfolio of securities it has amassed in its efforts to manage the economy?

Strong credit ratings remain a key feature for midstream companies, providing significant cost savings on debt. The subsector is largely dominated by investment-grade players, which also offer attractive dividend yields. Learn more below about the importance of an investment-grade rating and why midstream indexes are skewed towards these creditworthy names.

The recent high-profile bankruptcies and the timing of their collapse are consistent with this changing macro backdrop, although these cases were also allegedly exacerbated by inconsistencies in collateral accounting and pledges.

Today, we introduce the Price of Certainty: How much do you need to invest to achieve a particular set of cashflows over time, with varying degrees of certainty?

This article does not discuss the rationale of owning gold as a long-term asset. Instead, it questions the recent jump in gold prices and whether the current levels are fundamentally justified.

The question of the moment in markets is whether we are in an AI bubble, as stocks seem awfully expensive amid hopes that artificial intelligence will transform the economy. But there is another curiosity that is far more concerning: low credit spreads. That suggests a low-risk environment — which describes precisely nothing about this market.

Bold calls to “run to gold, silver, and bitcoin” make for strong headlines, but they oversimplify the reality of modern finance. As we’ve seen, money supply growth is not inherently a sign of debasement but reflects economic expansion. Far from being destructive, government deficits flow directly into private-sector savings and stabilize household balance sheets.

It’s not just the US, China, and Japan that have debt issues. It’s a large portion of the developing countries, and especially Europe. The developed world now has as much debt in terms of GDP as it did during the Napoleonic Wars. And as much or more debt (and growing!) than it did following World War II.

While policy and geopolitical risks persist, we believe many countries are better positioned to absorb trade shocks and attract funding. And with spreads near historical lows but yields still elevated, we believe the asset class continues to offer compelling opportunities—particularly in high-yield and select frontier markets.

U.S.-China frictions continue, highlighting that greater volatility is likely not a bug of the current trade stand-off but a feature of the emerging geopolitical landscape.

While the ongoing government shutdown continues to delay the release of many reports, a key piece of economic data managed to break through last week.

The core consumer price index, excluding the often volatile food and energy categories, increased 0.2% from August, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data out Friday. That was restrained by the smallest increase in a key measure of housing costs since early 2021.

Gold resembles stocks more than bonds in terms of risk, although stocks have been better performers. Since 1968, gold has been about 20% more volatile than the S&P 500 while trailing it by 2.3 percentage points a year.

To analyze the impact of the Fed’s rate cut on the bond market, we are going to look at the impact of Treasuries maturing between 2 and 10 years and Treasuries maturing between 10 and 30 years. We will explore the month prior to the Fed’s September meeting and the month after, in order to understand the full impact of the Fed’s decision to cut rates.

The interest rate volatility over the last three years has many investors reaching for bond ladders. We think there’s a best number of bonds to navigate the market and, coincidentally, it has something in common with a sci-fi classic.

Aggressive policy changes from Washington have introduced potential long-term economic risks, but markets continue to rally because the near-term conditions remain favorable.

Secondary economic indicators have taken on heightened importance amid the ongoing government shutdown. Read through a handful of these secondary reports from the week of October 13th-18th.

The de facto “passive” allocation of 60% equities/40% bonds has proven effective at compounding wealth over time by tapping into two key risk premia: the equity risk premium earned by underwriting the risk of an economic growth shock and an inflation risk premium received for bearing the risk of surprise inflation.

Northern Trust Asset Management provided justification for the mounting interest in munis in the fixed income space.

Bond traders are preparing for Treasury yields to drop further even as the 30-year reached its lowest level in six months on Tuesday.The cost of protection against a bigger decline in yields across the curve is rapidly rising, according to pricing of options wagers.

Granted, the Fed’s monetary policy doesn’t directly determine economic growth. It operates by influencing broader financial conditions, which have eased a lot in the past year. Stock prices have risen, bond yields have declined and the dollar has weakened.

Every week, this platform is used to highlight current ideas, fixed-income concepts, economic occurrences, and/or clarify a strategic fixed-income feature. The cohesive topic threads are fixed-income issues relevant to current market conditions.