- Insights
- Sustainability
- About Us
- Careers
- My Account
Wellington Global Homepage
ChangeFixed Income
Showing of
55
Insights Posts
Evolving impact investing for better potential outcomes
Our impact portfolio managers provide a snapshot of recent highlights and developments in impact investing.
Continue reading
Quick Take
2022-09-30
Closing the return gap: A new set of “stepping stone” ideas
Multi-Asset Strategist Adam Berger offers incremental, flexible investment ideas that can be combined to help asset owners pursue their goals amid declining capital market return expectations.
Continue reading
White paper
2023-06-30
Sustainable fixed income investing comes of age
ESG integration and sustainable investing have gained considerable traction in global fixed income markets. Investment Directors Anand Dharan and Meredith Joly and Fixed Income Trader Keenan Choy discuss this ongoing trend and some of its key implications for asset allocators.
Continue reading
Article
2023-06-30
Sticky inflation, weaker growth: A volatile mix
As central bank policy, rising prices, and slowing growth roil the markets, Nanette Abuhoff Jacobson and Supriya Menon explore the implications for equities, bonds, and commodities.
Continue reading
Article
2022-10-31
A transition year for agency MBS?
Following a challenging period for agency MBS, members of our securitized team now see attractive opportunities in the space and believe actively managed strategies may be the best way for many investors to capitalize.
Continue reading
Quick Take
2022-07-31
Timely musings on Fed policy and inflation
With rising inflation and interest rates dominating the financial headlines in recent weeks, I have been fielding a flurry of colleague and client questions about the likely future trajectory of US monetary policy. While I don’t claim to have all the answers, especially with so many “known unknowns” as of this writing, here are my latest thoughts.
Continue reading
Quick Take
2022-08-30
Monthly Market Snapshot: April 2022
A monthly update on equity, fixed income, currency, and commodity markets.
Continue reading
Article
2022-07-15
US inflation risk, angry bondholders, and silver linings
Here are quick thoughts on some common questions I’ve been asked recently about Fed policy, yields, the US dollar, and financial markets.
Continue reading
Quick Take
2022-08-31
Empirical duration: reason for optimism on risk assets?
While rising rates often produce negative bond returns, combining the concept of empirical duration with a positive outlook on the credit cycle may bode well for some fixed income sectors' return prospects going forward. Investment Analyst Will Prenits and Investment Director Tobias Ripka explain.
Continue reading
Quick Take
2022-07-31
Will Japanese buyers look beyond USD fixed income? They may have to
With the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed’s) interest-rate-hiking cycle now underway, it’s an important time to keep a close eye on non-US buyers of US dollar (USD) fixed income securities.
Continue reading
Quick Take
2022-07-31
Financial Market Review: First quarter 2022
A quarterly review of results in the global equity, fixed income, currency, and commodity markets.
Continue reading
Article
2022-10-15
Helping European investors navigate inflation fears
The recent shift to a higher inflation regime, with resulting expectations of tighter monetary policy and rising interest rates, presents a material challenge for European fixed income investors. Against this backdrop, Investment Analyst Will Prentis and Investment Director Tobias Ripka believe investment flexibility is key.
Continue reading
Quick Take
2022-07-31
Monthly Market Snapshot: March 2022
A monthly update on equity, fixed income, currency, and commodity markets.
Continue reading
Article
2022-06-15
Global convertibles: Poised to benefit from five structural tailwinds
Fixed Income Portfolio Manager Michael Barry and Investment Specialist Raina Dunkelberger believe global convertible bonds are likely to outperform other fixed income sectors over an investment time horizon of approximately two to three years. Learn why.
Continue reading
Quick take
2022-07-31
Credit investing against a slower-growth, higher-inflation backdrop
The significant flattening of the US Treasury yield curve in recent months has some prognosticators calling for an impending US recession. Not so fast, says Fixed Income Portfolio Manager Rob Burn.
Continue reading
Quick Take
2022-07-31
Higher inflation, rising rates: Front and center for insurers
With macro and market complications piling up through the first few months of 2022, Insurance Multi-Asset Strategist Tim Antonelli provides his investment implications for global insurers.
Continue reading
Article
2022-10-15
Bank loans: Resiliency amid volatility
In the face of ongoing geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty, including the prospect of steadily rising interest rates, our floating-rate bank loan team maintains a bullish outlook for the sector. Emboldened by a strong US economy and mounting inflationary pressures, the US Federal Reserve (Fed) enacted its first 25 basis-point (bp) increase in interest rates since 2018. Additionally, Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s recent rhetoric has become more hawkish, including suggesting the possibility of a 50 bp rate hike in the coming months. The market is now pricing in the fed funds rate to rise to around 2.5% by the end of 2022 (from its current target of 25-50 bps).
Continue reading
Quick Take
2022-07-31
Global credit: Where do we go from here?
Fixed Income Portfolio Manager Mahmoud El-Shaer explores why 2022 may be a momentous year for global credit and sets out a framework to think through potential investment implications. 2022 promises to be another challenging year for central banks as they attempt to normalise policies in the face of surging inflation, while navigating the growing fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Since 2009, there has essentially been one trade in capital markets: riding a huge wave of central bank liquidity in support of the financial system and the economy, with the G4 central banks alone pumping approximately US$20 trillion into the system via quantitative easing (QE).
Continue reading
Quick Take
2022-07-31
Four potentially powerful tailwinds for the securitized sector
In his latest Top of Mind session, Multi-Asset Strategist Adam Berger addressed a wide range of what-if scenarios on the minds of our clients. See what he has to say on Russia, China, cryptocurrencies, the IPO market, and many other topics in this brief article.
Continue reading
Quick Take
2022-06-30
A US insurer’s roadmap for navigating the new RBC regs
With the NAIC’s latest revisions to risk-based capital (RBC) charges now on the books, what should US insurers be focused on moving forward? And how have the relative value propositions across fixed income assets and other investments changed as a result? Multi-Asset Insurance Strategist Tim Antonelli and Investment Specialist Geoff Austein-Miller share their views and insights.
Continue reading
White Paper
2023-03-31
Ten more “what if” scenarios for 2022
In his latest Top of Mind session, Multi-Asset Strategist Adam Berger addressed a wide range of what-if scenarios on the minds of our clients. See what he has to say on Russia, China, cryptocurrencies, the IPO market, and many other topics in this brief article.
Continue reading
Article
2023-02-28
DC plans: Three timely themes that probably aren’t going away anytime soon
Our DC plan specialists highlight three big-picture investment themes that are not only top of mind for many plan participants in today’s environment, but are also likely to have staying power in the months ahead.
Continue reading
Article
2023-03-31
For markets, it’s complicated
As markets grapple with the war in Ukraine, inflation worries, and a host of other issues, Nanette Abuhoff Jacobson and Daniel Cook offer their thoughts on the investment implications for equities, commodities, and fixed income.
Continue reading
Article
2022-10-31
An inside look at today’s municipal market
After a year in which municipal bonds posted respectable returns (Figure 1), many clients have been seeking forward-looking guidance on the market as a whole and (increasingly) on particular sectors of it. Here are my latest thoughts as of this writing on the outlook for the rest of 2022.
Continue reading
Quick Take
2022-05-31
EM local debt: Forgotten but not forsaken
The emerging markets (EM) local debt sector (as measured by the JP Morgan Government Bond Index – Emerging Markets Global Diversified) just posted its worst calendar-year performance since 2013, returning -8.75% against the headwind of higher EM local interest rates. The underlying culprit? EM inflation surprised to the upside in 2021, forcing a number of EM central banks to raise their policy interest rates in an effort to curb the impact.
Continue reading
Quick Take
2022-09-30
Navigating a new tomorrow
In this video, Wellington investment professionals and prominent guests articulate the structural risks and opportunities that we believe will shape tomorrow’s investment strategies, ranging from medical innovation spurred by the global pandemic to technological breakthroughs, and ideas aimed at curbing or mitigating climate risk.
Continue reading
Replay
2023-01-31
Credit and equity performance around Fed hiking cycles
One of the discussion topics du jour is how the credit and equity markets might react to the US Federal Reserve (Fed) interest-rate hikes that are widely anticipated in the coming months. As is often the case with me, I find it helpful here to refer to past hiking regimes and market performances as a sort of guidepost.
The proof’s in the pudding
To wit, I examined the historical returns of both US credit (for this purpose, proxied by corporate high-yield bonds) and US equities (represented by the S&P 500 Index) during the six months before the first rate increase of a Fed hiking cycle through the 12 months after said increase.
Continue reading
Quick Take
2022-05-31
Better balance in bonds: How a factor framework and a barbell approach could help
For investors seeking diversification in their credit portfolios, members of our Fundamental Factor team propose a portfolio construction and manager selection process designed to source complementary manager alpha-generation styles and help “smooth out” the path of fixed income alpha.
Continue reading
Article
2023-02-28
Playing inflation defense with fixed income in 2022
For fixed income investors who are worried about the double threat of higher inflation and rising rates, there are strategies that may help insulate a bond portfolio. Fixed Income Investment Director Amar Reganti and Investment Specialist Jonathan Tan offer up some suggestions.
Continue reading
Quick Take
2022-02-28
High yield: Be ready for sideways moves, bouts of volatility in 2022
Our high-yield portfolio managers believe investors should stand ready to dynamically adjust positioning in a year that could see sideways spread moves and plenty of market volatility.
Continue reading
Quick Take
2022-08-31
2022 Fixed Income Outlook
Our fixed income outlook for 2022, examines our views on inflation and interest rates and the role central banks will play in the coming year.
Continue reading
Article
2022-11-15
Navigating narrow bond markets: how diversified is your fixed income alpha?
Understanding an active manager’s path and style of alpha generation should be a critical part of anyone’s fixed income manager evaluation process, says Brendan Fludder of our Fundamental Factor Team.
Continue reading
Quick Take
2022-07-28
A credit strategy designed for all seasons
We make the case for fixed income allocators to have an “all-weather†credit portfolio composed of carefully chosen building blocks.
Continue reading
2022-11-15
2022 Multi-Asset Outlook
In our 2022 Asset Allocation Outlook, we expect markets to focus on central bank efforts to tame inflation look at 5 post-pandemic essentials for 2022.
Continue reading
Article
2022-12-31
Changing “weather” patterns in alternatives and climate
Multi-Asset Strategist Adam Berger offers a forecast on the future of alternative and climate-related investing, with insights on manager selection, public/private allocations, climate-aware capital market assumptions, and a range of other topics.
Continue reading
Article
2022-11-30
Five investment essentials for a post-pandemic world
As the world “gets back to business” in 2022, a cautiously optimistic outlook seems warranted. For investors, it may be a year to think thematically.
Continue reading
Article
2022-11-30
Time to buy credit or Treasuries? Ideas on calibrating the trade-off
After hitting derisking triggers in 2021, many plans are looking ahead to the next trigger and thinking about how expensive the investment-grade credit market is currently. LDI Team members Connor Fitzgerald and Bill Cole offer metrics to aid the decision-making process and consider potential alternatives.
Continue reading
Article
2022-11-30
Does the credit market still have something to offer long/short investors?
While there may be concerns about the beta potential in credit markets, Multi-Asset Strategist Cara Lafond offers three reasons to stay focused on the attractive alpha opportunities that long/short credit strategies may pursue.
Continue reading
Article
2022-10-31
Countering climate risks through collaboration
Global Industry Analyst Alan Hsu and Dr. Philip Duffy of Woodwell Climate Research Center discuss the importance of close cooperation between investors and climate scientists when addressing climate action.
Continue reading
Podcast
2022-10-31
The evolution of derisking: Assessing new and time-tested liability-hedging ideas
As defined benefit plans contemplate the best path to their eventual “end state,” members of our LDI team update their liability-hedging research with a blend of traditional benchmark ideas and new opportunities to capitalize on changing market conditions and a broader investment universe.
Continue reading
Article
2022-09-30
Chinese government bonds: How do they measure up in a multi-asset framework?
As China’s bond market continues to grow in size and liquidity, we consider the potential role the country’s government bonds can play in diversifying a broader sovereign portfolio, improving yields, and offsetting equity risk.
Continue reading
Article
2022-08-31
Investing amid the great inflation debate
The global economy is recovering and supporting the performance of risk assets, but rising inflation is a bogeyman now. Global Investment Strategist Nanette Abuhoff Jacobson and Investment Strategy Analyst Daniel Cook offer thoughts on how investors might navigate this mixed picture.
Continue reading
Causes and effects of climate migration: Five essential insights
Climate-driven migration will have important social, economic, and geopolitical consequences. What experiences will drive people to leave their home? Which regions are at risk of disruption? Our Future Themes research team explores this complicated issue, including potential investment implications.
Continue reading
ARTICLE
2022-06-30
Are ESG and policy intervention game changers?
An accelerating focus on ESG and more aggressive policy interventions could change the way we invest in years to come. Marc Piccuirro assesses the implications for investors.
Continue reading
Article
2022-07-31
Are we on the cusp of an unconstrained bond fund “renaissance”?
Portfolio Managers Brian Garvey and Brij Khurana and Investment Director Brian Doherty see unconstrained fixed income approaches, if properly implemented, as being well suited to the current (or any) market environment.
Continue reading
ARTICLE
2022-07-31
Net Zero Asset Managers initiative
By targeting net-zero emissions, investors can contribute to the global decarbonization effort. But what does this mean in practice? How do we pursue net zero while aiming to deliver competitive investment returns for clients? Our incoming CEO discusses our net-zero commitment, and members of our Sustainable Investing Team explain how we are approaching it.
Continue reading
Video
2022-06-30
No way out? Why the Fed may be trapped
Shifting inflation dynamics could box the Fed into a corner and test its resolve going forward. Fixed Income Portfolio Manager Brij Khurana takes a closer look and considers the investment implications.
Continue reading
Getting the balance right in today’s high-yield market
Our high-yield team assesses how to navigate today’s high yield market at a time of major spread compression.
Continue reading
ARTICLE
Water: Priced for imperfection
Water scarcity could have profound humanitarian and economic consequences. Members of our Future Themes research team share insights from their work, including why they believe water is woefully underpriced and how investors can effectively gain exposure to this important theme.
Continue reading
Article
2022-05-31
Loans from Federal Home Loan Banks: An opportunity for US insurers to enhance investment yield and total return
Learn why we believe FHLB loans provide compelling potential for insurers to add alpha or increase yield by borrowing at low rates and benefitting from possible favorable treatment by ratings agencies. In addition, explore examples of customized investment solutions that have the potential to capitalize on these advantages.
Continue reading
2022-05-31
LDI Alert — Adding intermediate credit to the derisking tool kit: What plan sponsors need to know
With a growing number of derisking plans seeking exposure to intermediate credit, members of our LDI team highlight some key investment considerations.
Continue reading
Article
2022-03-31
An insurer’s guide to fixed income: Setting the record straight on rates and credit
Investment Directors Abigail Babson, Amar Reganti, and Anand Dharan lay out their proposed framework for building a more resilient fixed income allocation that is equal to the challenges of today’s environment.
Continue reading
2021-11-01
Fighting downgrade drag to reduce pension liability lag
Even robustly constructed liability benchmarks can struggle to keep pace with the liabilities they are meant to represent, and credit-rating downgrades of issuers in the benchmark are a primary culprit. In this paper, members of our LDI Team define the problem and offer ideas to help plan sponsors and LDI managers work together to fight back.
Continue reading
Article
2021-11-30
Debunking four common myths about CLOs
Fixed Income Portfolio Manager Alyssa Irving sets the record straight regarding CLO myths, including their potential risks and investment benefits.
Continue reading
2021-01-31
Muni market climate risk: Hidden perils, untapped opportunities
We believe the risks and opportunities associated with climate change should be part of the “mosaic” for how insurers approach the municipal bond market — and that now is the time to act.
Continue reading
2020-11-30
URL References
Related Insights