The macro data from the past month continues to mostly point to positive growth. On balance, the evidence suggests the imminent onset of a recession is unlikely.

Market participants have been puzzled by the decline in the U.S. dollar since the November 2016 election. Expectations over future central bank moves and short-term interest rates offer one explanation – and potentially a signal about the dollar’s future.

Ron and Jeff Muhlenkamp explain that recent tax cuts and deregulation should help keep the economy moving. Asset markets, on the other hand, could be affected by monetary tightening as the Federal Reserve and other central banks reduce or reverse their easy money policies.

Everyone seems to be a commodities bull lately. PIMCO is no exception: Our latest Asset Allocation Outlook suggests an overweight to real assets, including commodities.

With market volatility on the rise, consider a broad set of relative value opportunities across global markets.

The US corporate credit cycle is nearing its end, and the cycle in parts of Europe isn’t far behind. This can create treacherous conditions for unprepared investors. The first line of defense, in our view, is knowing what to expect.

Russ discusses why investors should worry less about higher interest rates and more about the volatility resulting from tighter financial conditions.

When the value trade goes global, investors are poised to benefit. Evidence from the international equity, bond, currency, and commodity markets indicates that the value premium is a global phenomenon that can offer important portfolio diversification. However, the devil is in the details: we argue that the successful implementation of global value strategies critically depends on an economically motivated design.

In the latest GMO Emerging Equity Insights, titled “Contemplating Value in Emerging Markets Intelligently, with a Little Help from Ben Graham” Amit Bhartia and Matt Seto revisit Ben Graham’s principles of value investing and extrapolate them to investing in emerging markets.

“Smoot-Hawley Tariff was an act implementing protectionist trade policies sponsored by Senator Reed Smoot and Representative Willis C. Hawley and was signed into law on June 17, 1930. The act raised U.S. tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods.”. . . Wikipedia

Municipal bonds might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a sexy investment. They don’t typically command news headlines like the stock market or bitcoin. That doesn’t mean investors should disregard short-term munis. In fact, munis play a very important role in any serious portfolio. Below are four big reasons why you should get excited about muni bonds.

We view the events of late January and early February as healthy – the final “death spasm” of market reliance on central bank policy, and a return to more normalized market conditions – volatility returns, earnings and fundamentals matter, and a reminder that stocks can go down sometimes as well as always up.

The economic calendar is normal but featuring the monthly employment report. Usually that would be the focus, and it might become so by week’s end. Until the situation is clarified, the paramount question will be: Has the US ignited a trade war?

A few weeks ago, I caught myself pulled in by an old James Bond classic, The World is Not Enough, starring Pierce Brosnan. In the movie, an oil heiress, Elektra King, is kidnapped. While in captivity, she becomes a victim to Stockholm Syndrome and plots with her captor to destroy an oil pipeline running to the Bosphorus Sea. There is a scene in the movie that encapsulates where we are in today’s stock market environment.

Buying high yielding and selling low yielding stocks is not an attractive strategy. Combining Dividend Yield with Quality & Growth factors improves the performance. Interestingly Dividend Growth adds relatively little value.

Last March, we wrote a piece entitled “Equity Repricing Under a New Administration: A Tail Risk Scenario.” We posited that the proposed pro-growth tax and spending policies of the Trump administration, thrust onto an economy nearing full capacity, could lead to a general rise in the inflation rate and ultimately the real rate of interest.

Events of recent weeks suggest that we have now entered the final stage of the long-running bull market in equities, but what will happen next? An inflationary or a deflationary bust? We argue that, as we see things, the more likely end-game is an inflationary bust, but we do admit that the arguments in favour of a deflationary bust are quite pervasive. Regardless, a bust is next, and a bust is still a bust.

Blackstone is pleased to offer the following Market Commentary by Byron Wien which shares his thinking on global economic developments, market insights and other factors that may influence investment opportunities and strategies.

The House Financial Services Committee has shifted Fed Chair Powell’s monetary policy testimony to Tuesday, February 27.

Following a strong 2017, emerging-market debt (EMD) held its own in January despite a sharp rise in US interest rates. That’s no accident. Economic fundamentals have improved dramatically, leaving EMD well positioned to withstand future turbulence.

The opening months of 2018 have seen volatility return to global financial markets, but we think it is important to stress US economic fundamentals have remained broadly the same. After an unusually long period of calm in many markets, the reappearance of volatility at some point seemed likely, even if the speed of market gyrations has been unsettling for investors.

Forgive us our incredulity. The bond vigilantes were certain that as the Federal Reserve hiked short-term rates, long-term interest rates would barely budge, the yield curve would invert, and the economy would fall into recession.

What a great question! I recently reread the above quote from Bob Prechter. It’s an excellent quip and virtually everybody can identify with it. On the surface the question seems laughable; who can’t accept huge gains? But in order to set yourself up for such gains you have to possess the courage to take an oversize position and maybe even leverage it.

Many investors are now willing to sacrifice liquidity in the search for higher yields, more attractive risk-adjusted returns and the flexibility to hedge against downside risk.

The upcoming Italian election is not attracting the same sort of attention among investors as votes last year in France and Germany. For that very reason, David Zahn, Franklin Templeton’s head of European Fixed Income, believes an unexpected result might provoke an outsized market reaction.

U.S. fiscal policy has become unmoored, and it will be difficult to steer it safely back to shore.

Looking long-term, there are mounting risks involving debt that make gold appear very attractive right now as a safe haven and portfolio diversifier.

The authors believe that with today’s heightened valuations across global equity markets, and volatility no longer cheap, now is a fitting time for investors to take a careful look at put writing strategies and consider swapping a portion of their traditional equity exposure for index put-writing. The piece concludes with a “Special Topic” dedicated to examining the recent VIX Blowup.

In our view, the prospective low-return environment calls for a capital-efficient approach that pairs actively managed bonds with passive or enhanced equities in target-date, core and retirement-income allocations.

US inflationary pressures are developing that could be destructive. Investors need to seek protection quickly. But how? For municipal investors, some inflation strategies fall short, leaving portfolios at risk.

Matthews Asia CIO Robert Horrocks says current stock valuations favor Asia amid an increase in market volatility globally.

In biblical tradition, the four horsemen of the apocalypse are a quartet of immensely powerful entities personifying the four prime concepts – war, famine, pestilence and death – that drive the apocalypse. For today’s investors, the equivalent is historically high equity valuations, historically low bond yields, increasing longevity and, as a result, the increasing need for what can be very expensive long-term care.

Think rising interest rates and higher stock prices are like oil and water? Think again, says Russ, at least for the time being.

Bond investors get anxious when rates rise suddenly, as Treasury yields have recently. But if your investment horizon is longer than a few months, rising rates are nothing to be afraid of.

During the second most significant repricing in U.S. Treasury bond yields since 2013, emerging market debt has so far significantly outperformed equity, oil and U.S. Treasury beta.

As readers of the missives know, the three sectors we have really liked are Financials, Technology, and Industrials. Therefore, we were excited to arrive in Boston last week to see portfolio manager (PMs) and renew friendships.

Recent market volatility suggests that investors are questioning whether the post-crisis subpar pace of economic growth, which we dubbed The New Normal, is subsiding, to be replaced by more traditional late-cycle outcomes – in particular faster inflation and tighter monetary policy.

We suspect the slope of the linear regression line is not as steep as those who use P/E to attempt to predict future returns believe.

On March 9, 2018, the bull market in U.S. stocks will celebrate its ninth anniversary. And, what we find most amazing is how few people truly understand it. To this day, in spite of massive increases in corporate earnings, many still think the market is one big "sugar high" – a bubble built on a sea of Quantitative Easing and government spending.

Stocks globally have experienced more than a week of tumultuous trading, with the US stock market officially in correction territory. And after being relatively sedate for years, the VIX Index has risen dramatically in recent days, indicating rising volatility.

The economic calendar is very light, and it is a holiday-shortened week. With the quadrennial CNBC switch to Olympic curling coverage after the market close, there is a little less air time to fill. What time and space remains will invite pundit opinion about last week’s stock rebound and the question: Is the coast clear?

Today marks the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, China’s most important holiday. The fire rooster struts off-stage, clearing the way for the loyal earth dog. According to CLSA’s tongue-in-cheek Feng Shui Index, health care, consumer and paper products are favored to outperform early this year, followed by internet, utilities and tech leading into the summer.

The Year of the Dog may not be known for being the most auspicious, but for China’s local, renminbi-denominated bond market it may prove momentous. I see two likely drivers of increased foreign investment as the government continues to lower the barriers to entry.

Untethered to traditional bond benchmarks, unconstrained bond strategies can respond to current changing market conditions in various ways.

Hasenstab shares his thoughts on navigating today’s market challenges. He covers recent market volatility, inflationary threats in the United States, upcoming elections in Latin America, potential “fault lines” in Europe and credit risk in China.

U.S. inflation data for January came in stronger than expected. What effect could this have on future Fed interest rate increases?

The end of 2016 through the beginning of 2018 had been one of the least volatile periods in recorded stock market history. It was THE least volatile by one measure – for the 404 trading days through the beginning of February, the market never had a five percent correction – the longest streak on record.

With a steady repricing of global bond markets having contributed to a sharp plunge in global stock markets, there could be a whiff of a new era in the air.

Global equity markets are still hurting from last week’s sell-off. Yet the renewed volatility could mark a return to reality after an unusually long period of steady gains and may even foster a healthier investing environment over time.