All Briefing articles – Page 8
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FeaturesBriefing: Alternatives to large-cap buyouts
Large buyout funds are a staple ingredient in many institutional pension funds’ private-equity portfolios. Focusing on more diversified private-market strategies could be a better way to achieve return objectives
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FeaturesBriefing: Draghi’s parting gift on ECB stance
If anyone in Europe was left in any doubt on 11 September about the dovishness of the European Central Bank (ECB) under Mario Draghi’s leadership, by close of business on the next day their doubts were surely dispelled. On that day the outgoing president of the ECB unleashed a bout of monetary easing, in an attempt to boost euro-zone inflation from 1% to its target of “below, but close to, 2% over the medium term”.
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FeaturesBriefing: US makes rapid turnaround
Father Christmas delivered a sack of coal to equity markets last Christmas Eve, with the S&P 500 index losing 1.8%, following a three-day slide. Forecasters had previously been expecting two or three rate hikes in December, as Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell steered that discussion. He had mistakenly assumed that the economy had not yet reached a normal, neutral level but it already had, forcing him to backtrack.
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FeaturesBriefing: Deep tensions threaten EU vision
This is not a commentary on the UK within or without Europe. Brexit has been a compelling distraction but it is one macroeconomic strand in a complex world. The overwhelming coverage has also moved attention away from key internal tensions within the European project.
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FeaturesBriefing: Coping with lower for much longer
German institutional investors have shifted their asset allocation due to low bond yields
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Features
Briefing: Give credit to CDS indices
DB pension funds could benefit from synthetic credit exposures provided by credit default swap indices
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FeaturesBriefing: The cliff-hanger of European banks
It has been a bad decade for European financials, with share prices still a fraction of their pre-crisis highs
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FeaturesBriefing: Sri Lanka after the bombings
The tragic Easter Sunday bombings have devastated tourism, a key plank of the economy
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FeaturesChina: To be or not to be
Investors are divided on whether to classify Chinese equities as a distinct asset class
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FeaturesBecoming a mortgage lender
More pension funds are eyeing residential mortgages as an asset class
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FeaturesBriefing: Emerging markets fail to catch up
Emerging markets have failed to increase their share of global investible market capitalisation since 2007
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FeaturesBriefing: Looking to active managers
Active management versus passive index tracking remains one of the most hotly contested questions in the world of investment management.
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FeaturesChina tech: Playing BATs versus FAANGs
Chinese tech firms offer exposure to rapidly expanding domestic markets
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FeaturesUS economy: Overpricing recession risk
Financial markets have suffered a nasty bout of indigestion since October. The interplay of sentiment and volatility induced widespread pessimism, with added concern that market tantrums could subsequently bleed into the real economy
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FeaturesCLO supply outstrips demand
Do reports of a growing wariness over collateralised loan obligations (CLOs) mean that the good times are over for the investment vehicle?
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FeaturesBriefing: Collateral challenges
Rising interest rates put collateral management strategies to the test
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FeaturesBriefing: Trade war, a primer
Protectionism is becoming more widespread despite the benefits of free trade being understood for more than two centuries
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FeaturesBriefing: MiFID II: a year on
The new rules are having a dramatic effect on the world of investment research
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Features
What next for US Treasuries?
A consensus on the direction of 10-year US Treasury rates is not obvious, because the answer reverts to a further question: whose consensus? Strategists, economists and other informed professionals have a particular view. The market itself, however, expresses a more diffuse and different opinion.
