This year has been different than most analysts were forecasting eight months ago, with U.S. economic growth – supported by a resilient labor market – remaining firm even as the Federal Reserve has continued to tighten monetary policy to address inflation. With the anticipated economic slowdown or recession yet to materialize, confidence is growing that […]
Summary Stubborn core inflation was the major theme that drove financial markets in June and much of the first half of this year. Persistently high inflation has meant that central banks in most developed markets have had to continue tightening monetary policy. Some – including the Bank of Canada and Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) […]
May was a month dominated by a debt ceiling standoff, along with ebbs and flows in interest rate expectations, both of which had collateral effects on risk markets more broadly. On May 3, the Federal Open Market Committee (“FOMC”) increased the Federal Funds rate for the 10th consecutive meeting by 25bps to 5.00% – 5.25%. […]
Volatility settled down considerably in April, supporting another solid month for risk assets, including global equities and corporate bonds. U.S. Treasury yields were volatile during the month, particularly at the short end, but actually ended the month little changed. Concerns about a bank crisis following the March failures of Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”) and Signature […]
March was a decent month for traditional asset classes, capping off a solid first quarter to start the year. However, the journey during the month was certainly far from what anyone would have anticipated as the month began. Stubborn inflation continued to be a concern as investors try to anticipate the tightening trajectory of the […]
This article is the third part of a series on alternative investments. Read the first and second parts. Alternative investments do not simply differ from traditional investments by being less liquid and offering lower correlation. Their entire makeup, portfolios, and methods of valuation are all markedly different from that of stocks and bonds. Thus, investors […]
Read More… from Alternative Investments: Exploring Asset Types
This article is the second part of a series on alternative investments. Read the first part here. All investments incur some level of risk, but many alternative assets are considered to be high(er) risk assets for a variety of reasons, including a lack of well-regulated and monitored exchanges, limited liquidity due to the lack of […]
How quickly things change! Having started the year with an across-the-board rally in risk assets, February delivered a stark dose of reality to investors. To be fair, the ongoing inflation issue has been at the forefront of investors’ minds in both the U.S. and the Eurozone for many months now. However, periodic reminders that we […]
This article is the first part of a series on alternative investments. While stocks and bonds come most readily to mind, there are many more types of investments available to individuals and institutions. These ‘alternative’ investments (so-called because they are not traditional equities or fixed-income securities) are numerous and have existed for decades. As investors […]