Displaying items by tag: fixed income

For Bloomberg, Hideyuki Sano shared some findings from an Invesco survey of sovereign wealth funds and central banks. Invesco surveyed 85 sovereign wealth funds and 57 central banks which manage a cumulative amount of $21 trillion.

The major takeaway is that the group is looking to increase allocations to fixed income and gold due to a combination of higher yields, increased geopolitical risk, and a shaky economic environment. They continue to see inflation as the biggest risk to returns and is one factor in their bullishness on gold. 

Interestingly, the sovereign wealth funds and central banks remain cautious on equities despite the strong rally over the last 9 months. In fact, many are looking to tweak their asset allocation models in order to increase exposure to fixed income as they look to take advantage of higher yields. 

Within the fixed income market, they were most bullish on emerging markets and high-yield. Compared to last year, there was a sharp rise in those who are bullish on private credit funds due to their strong performance over the past couple of years in a challenging environment. 

Finsum: Invesco conducted a survey of 85 sovereign wealth funds and 57 central banks. The major takeaway is increasing bullishness on fixed income and gold due to concerns about inflation and a potential recession.

For IFA Magazine, Sue Whitbread shared some commentary from Vanguard Active Fixed Income Perspectives. Overall, the firm remains bullish on the asset class although it anticipates continued, short-term volatility, but it is looking to add exposure on weakness. In total, the firm has about $445 billion in assets under management for its active fixed income strategies.

The firm notes that macro conditions have failed to deteriorate as anticipated given a string of better-than-expected data in terms of consumer spending, employment, and GDP. On top of this, Q1 earnings also beat analysts’ expectations as companies were able to pass on higher costs with minimal impact on demand. 

Cumulatively, all of these factors have led fixed income to weaken as the market prices in additional Fed rate hikes and prices out anticipated rate cuts at the beginning of next year. Over the past couple of months, the market has lifted its estimate for the terminal Fed funds rate to 6% from 5.5% previously.  

Going forward, the group continues to believe that tighter monetary policy and slowing growth will eventually materialize and provide a massive tailwind for bonds. Given the challenging environment, it advises patience and discipline. 

Finsum: Vanguard’s Active Fixed Income Group shared its perspectives on the global economy, interest rates, and the current state of the bond market.

In its midyear outlook for the fixed income market, UBS struck a bullish tone on mortgage-backed securities (MBS) but sees most of the fixed income market staying within the range from the first half of the year.

It believes the Fed will keep hiking rates until a terminal rate of 6% given the resilience of the economy. It ascribes the recent weakness in fixed income as a result of the market calibrating to this new reality rather than a recession in the second-half of the year.

Therefore, the market consensus that 2023 would be the year of fixed income has proven to be incorrect. Until the Fed begins cutting rates, fixed income markets face a significant headwind especially shorter-duration notes. Still, UBS remains cautious that as savings get depleted, higher rates could start to eat into consumer spending and other forms of economic activity. 

Given this challenging environment, UBS recommends MBS given the underlying strength of the housing market which has remained stable due to low supply and demand driven by demographics despite substantially higher mortgage rates. 

Finsum: UBS shared its midyear outlook for the fixed income market. It shared its economic outlook and why it’s bullish on MBS.

Blackrock’s Q2 earnings report gave some insights on the performance of its various funds in addition to commentary from its management team. Overall, the asset manager exceeded analysts’ consensus expectations with $9.28 in earnings per share vs $8.45. Compared to last year’s Q2, net income was up 25% while revenue was down 1%. Total assets under management climbed to $9.4 trillion.

However, the company did miss analysts’ estimates when it came to inflows into its equity and fixed income funds at $57 billion vs expectations of $81 billion. Active funds were particularly weak with $9.7 billion of outflows from active equity and $3.7 billion from active fixed income.

These disappointments have weighed on Blackrock’s stock price which has underperformed the S&P 500 YTD. Yet, the company remains confident that future growth will come from active fixed income. According to Blackrock President Rob Kaptio, “There is finally income to be earned in the fixed-income market.” He sees higher yields as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” and that are supportive of inflows into its lineup of active fixed income products. 

Finsum: In Q2, Blackrock saw negative inflows into active fixed income and equity funds. Yet, the company continues to see these products as key to its long-term growth.

In an article for TheStreet, David Dierking discusses two ETFs offering investors weekly dividends. It’s an innovative offering by SoFi as most equities pay out dividends on a quarterly basis, while fixed income ETFs offer monthly payouts. 

In contrast, the SoFi Weekly Dividend ETF (WKLY) and the SoFi Weekly Income ETF (TGIF) are structured to give investors a weekly payout. WKLY is made up of a blend of equities and fixed income. It invests primarily in dividend-paying companies with a market cap of over $1 billion. Some of its largest holdings include Exxon Mobil, Johnson & Johnson, and JPMorgan Chase. It pays out $0.02 per share on a weekly basis which is a 2.2% annual yield. 

TGIF invests primarily in high-yield fixed income and is considered a bond ETF. It mostly invests in short and intermediate-term duration and also has an active management structure which gives it wider latitude to take advantage of opportunities in the credit space. It pays out $0.07 per share on a weekly basis and has an annualized yield of 3.8%. Since inception, it had one dividend hike from $0.05 per share to $0.07.

FinSum: SOFI has introduced an equity fund and fixed income fund which offers weekly dividends. Here are some important considerations.