Article The End of Interest-Rate Hikes: Are We There Yet? By Chris Keith — May 11, 2023 Curious bond investors everywhere want to know: Are we there yet? “There” refers to the end of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate-hiking cycle. It’s not a certainty, but our view is that the Fed is on the cusp of shifting policy. The economy may be weakening, which supports this view. Softening data … Read Morekeyboard_arrow_right
Article Chart of the Week: Are Bonds Back? By Chris Keith — February 6, 2023 We could see a potential government shutdown later in the year, wherein federal agencies are forced to cease all nonessential functions.Read Morekeyboard_arrow_right
Article The Debt-Ceiling Dilemma By Jennifer Yousif — January 23, 2023 The din from the debt-ceiling debate is almost deafening, and it’s likely to get worse. Though the reality may not be quite so bad.Read Morekeyboard_arrow_right
Article 2023: A Better Year for Bonds? By Chris Keith — January 11, 2023 As a bond investor, the best thing I can say about 2022 is that it’s over! And we believe 2023 will be a better year for bonds. After years of artificially low interest rates, the days of reckoning came in 2022. First slowly, with one rate hike of “just” 25 basis points. … Read Morekeyboard_arrow_right
Article Chart of the Week: Don’t Bail on Bonds By Jeffrey DeMaso — January 3, 2023 Stocks falling 20% in a calendar year isn’t fun, but something experienced investors expect. Bonds falling 13%? That’s…not what we expect.Read Morekeyboard_arrow_right
Article The Bond Investor’s New Mantra By Chris Keith — November 10, 2022 Don’t allow perfect to be the enemy of good. Voltaire, the French writer and philosopher, is commonly thought to have made this important point first. Though he probably wasn’t referencing the bond market, his thinking is appropriate at this point in the current cycle: There’s no need for investors to wait for … Read Morekeyboard_arrow_right
Article Bond Talk: State of the Markets By Chris Keith — September 28, 2022 Recently I sat with Adviser’s interim chief marketing officer and director of content, Jacque Murphy, for a Q&A on the state of the bond market. Here are highlights from the discussion. Jacque Murphy: Let’s begin with bond performance year-to-date. What were the biggest surprises for you? Chris Keith: To get right … Read Morekeyboard_arrow_right
Article Bonds Brief: Third Quarter 2022 By Chris Keith — August 1, 2022 Even in the most difficult days, bonds continue to do their job. They produce income and balance risk. It did not always feel that way over the first half of the year, as the market value of individual bonds fell along with the major indices, but our bonds continued to earn and … Read Morekeyboard_arrow_right
Article Chart of the Week: How the Bond Market Prices In Fed Policy By Jeffrey DeMaso — July 29, 2022 Traders and investors spend a lot of energy trying to predict the Federal Reserve’s actions. The Fed also spends a fair amount of effort telegraphing what it is planning to do; an unwritten policy is to try to avoid “surprising” the market. The result? By the time the Fed acts, bond … Read Morekeyboard_arrow_right
Article Why Bonds, Why Now? By Chris Keith — July 28, 2022 The U.S. bond market was down 10.3% through the first half of this year. What’s worse, bonds fell in tandem with stocks, causing many investors to wonder if bonds had lost their power to protect portfolios and act as a dependable hedge against volatility. The good news for bond investors is that … Read Morekeyboard_arrow_right