Asset Allocation

The Northern Trust Economics team shares its outlook for major markets in the months ahead.

As other nations seek to become less dependent on the U.S. dollar, rumors of the greenback’s potential demise continue to swirl. Can the dollar remain king of the world’s reserve currency?

Last week the VettaFi Voices gathered to reflect on a year at VettaFi under the firm’s new name. The team celebrated wins, and time spent together, and shared their favorite insights and highlights from a busy twelve months.

While we don't expect the U.S. government to default, the uncertainty may heighten market volatility in coming days. Here are answers to some of the questions we're hearing most often.

First-quarter earnings largely surprised to the upside, but expectations also had been guided down. What does the latest earnings news mean for stock investors? Carrie King, Global Deputy CIO of BlackRock Fundamental Equities, offers three observations.

Bonds issued by government-sponsored enterprises can offer slightly higher yields than U.S. Treasuries, without requiring investors to take on too much additional risk.

Stocks are having a great year, but gold is doing even better. Year-to-date global equities are up roughly 9% in dollar terms; gold has advanced more than 10%.

Over the past decade or so, there has been a broad trend in the industry toward closing and freezing defined benefit plans.

Most of us spent moments of our childhood, crayon in hand, connecting numbered dots that gradually revealed a picture that we couldn’t deduce simply by looking at the separate dots. With experience, we got better at looking at those isolated dots and mentally connecting them into a coherent “gestalt.”

We prefer private to public credit long term on better return potential. It’s the mirror image in equity: We prefer public stocks as risks fade in the medium term.

Diversification is a cornerstone of thoughtful, long-term focused investing. Incorporating assets and asset classes that don’t always move in tandem – that is, their returns aren’t strongly correlated – can help temper stock and bond market risk.

Tax-loss harvesting is one of the direct indexing’s biggest benefits. The automation that direct indexing provides greatly increases the strategy’s potential benefits.

Review the latest Weekly Headings by CIO Larry Adam.

A member of Putnam's Fixed Income team since 2007, Onsel Gulbiten analyzes macroeconomic issues, including inflation, interest rates, and policy developments.

Banks and financial institutions are big issuers of preferred securities, so the recent banking industry volatility has had an impact. Our guidance on preferreds is unchanged but with some caveats.

The distinction between futures-based ETFs and crypto equity ETFs is clear when you look closely at the two. But even when examining them closely, it may be difficult to distinguish between the different types of blockchain/crypto equity ETFs because of similarities with fintech, metaverse, and Web3 concepts.

What generally follows that expression is a succinct synopsis. We’re always trying to be concise;
however, distilling complex economic and investment matters usually requires several pages.

Factor investing has seen increased popularity in the US. Investors may also want to consider increasing their opportunity set by considering factors abroad.

When markets turn volatile, it’s not time to despair. Stephen Dover, Head of Franklin Templeton Institute, offers some judicious perspectives on how to turn volatility into opportunity.

Credit conditions are tightening in both Europe and the United States. Our analysis follows in our mid-quarter update, Tightening Credit.

The U.S. economy is likely slowing down, and a recession seems likely in the 12-18 month time horizon.

An in-depth analysis of hedge fund performance demonstrates that, over the past 15 years, lower-beta hedge fund styles have generally achieved higher alpha, aligning with investors' objectives of maximizing returns and diversification.

Despite economic uncertainty, we see compelling value in high-quality, liquid assets that we view as more resilient in the face of a potential recession.

The Northern Trust Economics team shares its outlook for U.S. growth, employment, interest rates, and inflation.

The Federal Reserve’s latest 0.25% interest-rate hike has likely capped one of its most aggressive policy-tightening cycles in 40 years. And the cumulative 5% policy rate increase in just over a year is now starting to have an effect on rate-sensitive sectors and inflation.

Working with a skilled OCIO provider can help you position your portfolio to benefit from investment opportunities and avoid uncompensated risks.

Rising rates in today's fixed-income markets have led to more attractive bond prices and higher yields, alleviating some of the challenges facing income investors.

Doug Drabik discusses fixed-income market conditions and offers insight for bond investors.

As the US economy begins to feel the weight of the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes, investors have grown leery of US high-yield corporate bonds. On the surface, that makes sense. Historically, credit conditions soured when growth slowed.

Although affordability remains an obstacle, recent data offer reasons to be more constructive as broader conditions still appear supportive of home prices.

We think the U.S. debt limit showdown will spark renewed volatility in markets. That risk reinforces why we stay invested and cautious by going up in quality.

As the credit market grows more stringent, investors should consider high-quality, longer-term bonds. Here are some fixed-income strategies.

Review the latest Weekly Headings by CIO Larry Adam. Tighter lending standards still pose a risk. The debt ceiling issue will get resolved. The earnings outlook is improving.

There is a disconnect between the Fed’s message regarding taking a pause in hiking interest rates this year and the market’s expectations of rate cuts.

The longer-term risks of sticky inflation, monetary policy changes, and slowing economic growth continue to challenge the markets. Within this uncertain backdrop, Franklin Income Investors’ Ed Perks shares his latest outlook and the investment opportunities he sees across fixed income and equities.

An allocation to fixed income may help investors navigate a potential recession as well as uncertainty around the Federal Reserve’s policy trajectory.

After moderate gains in March, markets continued to rally in April. U.S. markets were up by low single digits, while bond markets were moderately positive. International markets were mixed, with developed markets showing modest gains while emerging markets ticked down.

Pay attention to the bond diversification, resiliency quality stocks may offer, and current allocation to cash within portfolios in the wake of Fed action.

Doug Drabik discusses fixed-income market conditions and offers insight for bond investors.

Financial cracks from rate hikes have led to jitters over commercial real estate. Yet granularity is key. We see opportunities in some U.S. industrial properties.

With regional bank volatility grabbing headlines, CIO Larry Adam looks at what this activity means for the economy and asset classes.

For this edition of Bull vs. Bear, Karrie Gordon and Nick Peters-Golden debated the long-term investing case for gold ETFs. Have the yellow metal’s fundamentals fundamentally changed?

Many investors are choosing to access bitcoin and broader crypto themes through traditional ETF wrappers due to their relative simplicity and familiarity.

World economic growth is slowing. That’s so obvious, very few will disagree. I suppose there are people out there predicting imminent 1990s-like expansion, but they are few and far between. If recession begins soon, it will be the most anticipated one in history.

Japan’s business and government leaders have undertaken efforts to revitalize the country’s economy. Dina Ting, Franklin Templeton ETFs’ Head of Global Index Portfolio Management, discusses some of these positive developments.

Since early March bonds and growth stocks have rallied, and for the first time since 2021 bonds have resumed their role as an equity hedge.

The big picture is that this week’s adjacent decisions by two major central banks point to a near-term divergence in policy paths between the US and Europe: the Fed is on hold and the ECB is still raising rates.

Along with identifying your goals and time horizon, assessing risk is a key part of building a holistic financial plan. And while affluent investors generally have higher risk tolerances, determining their individual risk profiles isn’t straightforward.