Markets
If your clients are invested in Chinese companies and have a preference for ESG, it may be time for a change in their portfolios. It appears sustainability rules in western countries are at odds with what’s happening in China. While Chinese equities offer strong growth potential, their ESG ratings rank lower than western nations and most emerging markets. For instance, Sustainalytics, a sustainable rating agency owned by Morningstar, downgraded three Chinese big-name tech companies on its watchlist in October. The three stocks, Tencent, Weibo, and Baidu, were moved to the category of “non-compliant with UN principles.” In addition, Hong Kong Watch, a UK-based group that researches investment and human rights issues in China, recently said in a report that “many of the biggest asset management, state pension, and sovereign wealth funds were passively invested in companies allegedly involved in the repression of Uyghur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region.” The report found three major stock indices provided by MSCI included at least 13 companies that “have allegedly used forced labor or have profited from China’s construction of internment camps and surveillance apparatus in Xinjiang.” Another problem is that Chinese companies are less likely to respond to queries from ESG rating agencies.
Finsum:With ESG investing continuing to gain momentum, it appears that many Chinese companies are at odds with ESG due to censorship and repression in China.
After a tough year for fixed income, many bond strategists are expecting 2023 to be a great year for bonds. But where should advisors and investors look to invest? In an interview with Yahoo Finance Live, PIMCO Managing Director and Portfolio Manager Sonali Pier offered her perspective on where the sweet spot will be for bonds this year. She believes that despite potential volatility, “there’s a lot of room now for income-producing assets.” She stated, that “a sweet spot may be those Triple Bs within investment grade, for example, where dollar prices have come down a lot as a result of the interest rates rising as well as credit spreads having widened.” In the interview, she also talked about what areas of the corporate bond market to avoid. Her firm is most concerned with areas where there are “low multiples on businesses, low margins, high cyclicality, where it's very difficult to weather a storm like a recession when you have those types of things against you as well as still inflation as an impact.” She mentioned industries such as retail, autos, and wire lines to avoid that are seeing declines due to a “shift in investor demand as well as disruption from the supply chain.”
Finsum:PIMCO portfolio manager Sonali Pier believes that a sweet spot for bonds this year may be triple Bs within investment grade while avoiding industries such as retail, autos, and wire lines.
According to Cerulli Associates' U.S. Exchange-Traded Fund Markets 2022 report, active fixed-income ETFs present a massive opportunity for firms. Daniil Shapiro, a director in product development at Cerulli, said in a recent interview that "a mix of factors" have combined to create the opportunity. He stated, "You have investors that are showing an increased preference for the ETF structure and they're increasingly open to accessing fixed income through the ETF structure. At the same time, you have interest rates that are increasing, which makes fixed income more attractive to investors." The report was based on polling Cerulli conducted in the third and fourth quarters of last year. It revealed that among advisers using ETFs, the portion using U.S. fixed-income ETFs has continued to increase, with 70% reporting such use in 2022, up from 63% in 2021. In addition, when ETF issuers were asked to gauge key drivers of fixed-income ETF flows over the next 24 months, greater adviser familiarity with fixed-income ETFs topped the list, cited by 66% of respondents. The second biggest driver was the increased use of fixed-income ETFs by institutions, which was cited by 55% of respondents.
Finsum:According to a new report by Cerulli Associates, active fixed-income ETFs present a massive opportunity for firms due to investors preferring the ETF structure and fixed income being more attractive with higher rates.
More...
According to a post-viewer poll following a VettaFi active fixed-income webcast, financial advisors seemed to be warming up to having more actively managed bond ETFs in their client’s portfolios. After viewing the webcast Active Fixed-Income Answers to Tight Monetary Policy, half of the respondents said that they are very likely to increase their exposure to active ETF strategies in the future, while 37.5% said they are somewhat likely to do so. The poll also found that "56% said they were concerned that owning passive index-only ETFs left them too exposed to market conditions without forward-looking risk controls or the ability to pivot to make changes, with 44% saying they were ‘very concerned’.” Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi had this to say about the results, “With the heightened market volatility of 2022 likely to persist into the new year, advisors are increasingly interested in ETFs where, rather than shifting to a more offensive or defensive stance, they can take advantage of the expertise of managers who can shift exposure based on the latest developments.” With ETF firms launching more actively managed funds amid market volatility and inflation, investors are looking to active management to help guide their portfolios.
Finsum:A recent poll by VettaFi found that more advisors are seeing the importance of active fixed income in their client portfolios.
Institutional investor portfolios are expected to look very different next year. For the first time in years, short-term government bonds are yielding more than 4 percent. This could lead to widespread changes in asset allocation, as investors won't have to allocate as much to equities. When rates were near zero, institutional investors had more stocks in their portfolios than they would have liked as a higher equity allocation brought on more risk. But now that yields are much higher, investors can once again allocate to fixed income. Even CDs are yielding nearly 4 percent. Mike Harris, president of the quantitative manager Quest Partners told Institutional Investor that “When central banks were printing money and forcing rates close to zero…people said, ‘We don’t want any fixed income in the portfolio,’ which is crazy to me. It’s been a building block of traditional portfolios for as long as I can remember. Investors were adamant about finding ‘somewhere else to park that capital,’ even if that meant taking on unwanted risk.” Now that bonds are much more appealing due to the higher yields, Harris expects that there are going to be some significant changes in asset allocation.
Finsum:A rise in yields for low-risk bonds could have major implications for institutional asset allocation next year.
It looks like alternative asset classes are writing a story of their own.
Someone say Kurt Vonnegut’s name written all over them? After all, he always seems to have one trick or another up his literary sleeve.
Its been a never before seen year in the equity and fixed income markets, according to fa-mag.com. Global equities receded close to 20% as of June 30. Meantime, high quality fixed income jetted backwards by around 10%. Historically? Well, it was the darkest start to a year in the bond market since, get this, 1842. Just keeps getting better, eh?
Well, it’s a different ballgame for those asset classes. During the year, the cocktail of real estate, real assets, hedge funds, private equity and private debt nudged aside both equities and fixed income.
Okay, sure, alternative asset classes have caught a little heat for their fees, minimums and illiquidity. This year, however? Well, they’ve larded on a great deal of value. The question: will this trend sustain itself?
A release of its findings earlier this month of its most current Selling Retail Investment Products through Intermediaries Report, based on 810 confidential interviews of U.S.-based financial advisors in September, found a three point jump in the use of alternatives, according to insights.issgovernance.com. It was 39% in Q4 of 2021 to 42% in June of this year.