Leveraged and Inverse Funds

In an economy where the Fed has lost every systematic tether to common sense, empirical evidence, and concern for financial stability, it’s worth beginning this first market comment of 2022 by recalling the ways we’ve adapted in order to navigate that environment.

Loomis Sayles' Emerging Markets Debt Sector Team share their views on key themes in 2022.

The Federal Reserve dealt the bond market a sharp body blow on January 5th with the release of the minutes of its last Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) policy meeting in December 2021.

“Speculative” is a word that aptly sums up the year 2021.

Most global equity managers today are underweight Japan.

Here are my New Year “investor” resolutions for 2022.

Leveraged loan supply and demand experienced a banner year in 2021.

What has been a tumultuous last few months for crypto markets has only accelerated through the turn of the New Year.

Talent is quitting. And new talent is hard to hire.

Rising inflation is troubling bond investors worldwide, but European bond markets will likely experience comparatively weaker inflation pressures and stronger central bank support.

With both the pandemic and inflation proving longer lasting than many had anticipated, what does that mean for central bank policy in the months ahead?

Every year has plenty of lessons when looking backward in December.

If you have read the Absolute Return Letter for years, you will be aware that the January letter always stands out from the others.

To kick off our annual sector outlook series, Loomis Sayles Senior Macro Strategies Analyst Craig Burelle shares his views on the macro backdrop in 2022, covering inflation, the Fed and the global expansion.

We have been reading a book written by David Carey and John Morris called King of Capital. It is the story of the Blackstone company and its key founder, Stephen Schwarzman. An economic history from the 1980s through today is included and lays out some excellent reminders of certain disciplines which can create wealth in picking public companies to invest in.

After what has been a torrid few weeks for crypto and traditional risk assets alike, we are beginning to enter what could be an important make or break point in time for crypto markets.

Financial history is littered with the remains of ideas that marked the peaks and troughs of markets over time. From magazine covers to the world’s tallest skyscrapers to new investment products and strategies. Most proved to be the result of the psychology at that time, whether it was excessive bullishness or overwhelming fear.

Insights from Franklin Templeton specialist investment managers Brandywine Global, Clarion Partners, ClearBridge Investments and Western Asset

Don’t let the rush of the holidays deter you from engaging with clients on one of the most important financial planning topics—charitable giving. This article offers four ways advisors can deepen client relationships and help clients expand the impact of their philanthropy.

The economics teams reflects on six themes that defined an extraordinary year.

Historically, fourth quarter tax loss selling of closed-end funds (“CEFs”) has been prevalent in the market. CEFs may be more susceptible to tax loss selling given they trade on a stock exchange and market prices (investor return) can deviate from underlying net asset values (“NAVs”) (fund return).

Inflation continues to be a concern these days, and many investors are looking for investments that can keep pace with, or hopefully beat, the rate of inflation. As a result, Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, or TIPS, have become a popular investment option.

Chinese property markets are going through a significant slowdown that began in Q2 2021. The average slowdown in the previous episodes over the last 20 years lasted four quarters.

Interest rates were mixed in November, as shorter maturity yields continued to rise while longer maturity yields fell further. The continued flattening of the yield curve reflects the market’s expectation that the Fed will be more aggressive in their tapering of official purchases and potentially raise the fed funds target rate more quickly and aggressively than previously thought.

It appears as though we may be heading towards an inflection point in early 2022 whereby we begin to see the rate of growth continue its deceleration to the downside. Whether inflation follows suit remains to be seen, though my base case in the direction of change in inflation could surprise to the upside again in December and perhaps even January.

Bear with us as (no pun intended) you read this longer-than-usual outlook!

As the last wave of baby boomers heads into retirement, the need for a consistent and reliable stream of income is growing. Advisors seeking a balance between generating income and providing for future growth may want to consider income-focused model strategies.

Once started, wage-price spirals are hard to stop.

Could the Fed trigger the next “financial crisis” as they begin to hike interest rates? Such is certainly a question worth asking as we look back at the Fed’s history of previous monetary actions.

Investors generally are still expecting above-average returns for U.S. stocks over the next several years. Meanwhile, since valuations are so high, models that have been historically accurate predicting 10-year returns point to negligible returns.

The last 20 months have taught us to question everything. What is the future of work? Can American democracy survive? Will Baby Boomers keep consuming more than their fair share? And what comes after “trillion”? Howard Marks’s latest memo examines paradigm shifts that could reshape the economy, markets and the world for many years to come.

Will Consensus on Electric Vehicles, Solar and Wind Crush Investors? How similar is cleantech today to 1999?

Moderate inflation can be good, especially for some value stocks. Christian Correa breaks down why investors should not be afraid of the current inflationary or rising rate environments and explains how they can actually help some businesses and areas of the equity market.

In this latest survey, 53 leading bond and currency managers considered valuations, expectations and outlooks for the coming months. With the economic recovery undeniably ramping up, we asked managers for their thoughts on valuations in the markets.

Private capital will continue to be the financing source of choice for tech-driven unicorns for the foreseeable future.

There are certain features of valuation, investor psychology, and price behavior that emerge, to one degree or another, when the fear of missing out becomes particularly extreme and the focus of speculation becomes particularly narrow. We’ve suddenly hit a motherlode of those conditions. Emphatically, this is not a forecast. It's a statement about current, observable conditions.

Bill Zox and John McClain, portfolio managers with Brandywine Global, join Amer Hasan to discuss how current market and economic conditions could benefit high yield investors, the opportunities and risks right now, and why the asset class is often overlooked or misunderstood.

With a new Prime Minister taking the helm in Japan, what does the future hold? Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions’ Gene Podkaminer and members of the research team take a look at both local and global trends influencing Japan—and why investors should pay more attention to the country.

While the Fed notes valuations are elevated, the crucial message to investors gets obfuscated. From current valuation levels, the expected rate of return for investors over the next decade will be low.

Increasing regulation and stress in the property sector have led to lowering expectations for Chinese economic growth in 2022. Could the global economy be impacted as well?

When your largest position, Viasat Inc. (Ticker: VSAT), enters into a transformational merger involving regulatory complexity, interesting technology, enough equity issuance to require a shareholder vote, and a conceptual doubling down against what might be called the “Elon Musk-generated low-earth-orbit satellites (LEO) space craze...