All articles by Caroline Hay – Page 11
-
Features
Corporates bring market to life
No longer the poor relation of the capital markets, the fund management industry has continued to grow and develop both in stature and capability, and most especially within Europe. Perhaps some of the most fundamental changes have been seen on the fixed income side, itself often considered the ‘dull’ partner ...
-
Features
Corporate bonds favoured as recovery play
Not only do bond investors disagree among themselves as to the direction of interest rates this year but the asset allocation pundits are also proposing a variety of outcomes. For Goldman Sachs, for example, the place to be over the next 12 months is equities: “Equities offer the best returns: ...
-
Features
Could be the start of something big
The first Eurozone inflation indexed bond (OATei) auctioned in October by the French Trésor has been very well received. Demand was seen not just from within the domestic market but also from the rest of Europe and as well as the UK and the US. As well as the Anglo ...
-
Features
Heightened risk aversion
It is never straightforward predicting outcomes, but today’s investors face even more challenges as the war against terrorism continues. Capital markets seem to be entering new realms and for most investors, even quite seasoned ones, it is pretty much unchartered territory. The US yield curve was the steepest it had ...
-
Features
High-yield at low ebb
The Merrill Lynch High Yield Master Index in September suffered its biggest monthly fall since its inception. It declined –6.42% during the month, taking its third-quarter fall to –6.07%, which in itself was the biggest such drop since the third quarter of 1990. In addition, the spread versus Treasuries at ...
-
Features
Hunting for the bargains out there
Magnifying an existing trend appears to be the consensus view emerging among fixed income fund managers as to the main economic effects of the terrorist attacks and subsequent retaliations. For Matthieu Louanges and his colleagues at Allianz-PIMCO, the markets have moved rapidly – over the space of a few days ...
-
Features
Quiet caution pervades
Analysis and exhaustive investigation of the possible impact on capital markets of the dreadful events in New York and Washington will continue for sometime. Instinctively, people have looked to past experience in order to try and reconstruct some form of order in today’s shocked environment. Comparisons have been drawn between ...
-
Features
Year of misery rolls on
The first half of the year certainly has certainly been a miserable one for government bond markets. As central banks across the developed world eased – some more aggressively than others – so yield curves began to steepen markedly. For most bond markets this also meant rising yields at the ...
-
Features
Irish vote 'just a hiccup'
The purpose of the Nice Treaty, signed by the European member states in February, is to complete the programme of institutional reform designed to prepare the EU for a significant expansion in its membership. It is absolutely key to the EU enlargement process. The European press certainly had a field ...
-
Features
Japan 'close to real crisis'
Although economic and interest rate forecasting is a complex affair even in the good times, when asked about Japan many fund managers, both bond and equity, shiver visibly. For global investors, investing in Japan has long been accompanied by a fair element of fear. It was back in 1990 that ...
-
Features
ECB resists rate cut mood
Only one to go? After the Bank of England’s careful quarter-point cut in early February, a move which followed similar actions from the central banks of the US, Canada, Australia, Denmark and even Japan, the spotlight turned, by default, on the European Central Bank (ECB). But no such rate-cutting announcement ...
