Government Bonds – Page 2
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Country Report
Italian pension funds fine-tune asset allocation
Growing appetite for private market investments, amid shifting equity and bond portfolios, are keeping Italian pension funds busy
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Features
IPE Quest Expectations Indicator - August 2024
Joe Biden’s weakness was a lucky stroke for Donald Trump, who has shown similar symptoms for years. It remains to be seen what effect Kamala Harris has on the polls. Trump and his chosen VP are both proponents of weakening the USD.
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News
Swedish funds agency sets soft ceiling on fees, changes tender order
FTN announces changes to its plans and improvements to the process, following lessons learned
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Analysis
What happens if we burn all the carbon?
As someone who started his career working for Shell International (albeit four decades ago when fossil-fuel-induced global warming was not an issue that we were aware of), I do not believe that oil companies are inherently evil.
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Features
Market predicts US soft landing - June 2024
A combination of Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell’s press conference and a slightly weaker-than-expected US April non-farm payrolls outcome succeeded in flipping the market back to a soft-landing narrative for the US economy. US Treasury bonds rallied sharply, taking other markets with them, while the yen weakened significantly against the dollar before recovering.
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Features
IPE Quest Expectations Indicator - June 2024
Trump and Biden are both losing to undecided voters, a group that is now unusually large and may be sensitive to Trump’s legal troubles. Biden’s approval rate is below his score in presidential polls, while Trump’s score is the same in presidential polls and those measuring voters’ opinion of him. In the UK, the Conservatives took another drubbing in the local elections.
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News
KPN scheme dumps inflation linkers
The reason for the sale is Germany’s decision to stop issuing inflation-linked bonds
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News
Swiss schemes turn to corporate bonds as currency hedging costs rise
Currency hedging costs in the bond markets US and EU government bonds less attractive for the pension funds, says Complementa
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Features
US economy continues to surprise
The resilience of the US economy continues to confound observers. The Federal Reserve’s 11 hikes in interest rates over the course of 2022 and 2023 were implemented to rein in economic strength and to stifle inflation. Scroll forward to the second quarter of 2024 and both inflation and economic activity are still higher than expected.
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Features
IPE Quest Expectations Indicator - May 2024
EU parliamentary elections are approaching fast. Current polls predict a shift to the right, with the current centrist parties remaining dominant and the extremist right overtaking the Eurosceptics. US President Donald Trump is still liable to be convicted in a criminal case, but his poll figures are rising.
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News
Asset owners launch pilot for sovereign climate engagement
NZAOA also expands work on private markets in new target-setting rules
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News
Publica sets up bespoke ESG benchmarks for EM government bonds
It worked with 17 asset managers on guidelines intended to increase transparency on ESG for investments in corporate loans, infrastructure, and real estate mortgages
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News
First quarter sees uptick in sustainability bonds
Market represents a lower proportion of wider bond markets, despite recent growth in issuance
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News
Swiss APK to review investment strategy, sustainability approach
The scheme plans to cover further asset classes with existing sustainability strategy
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Features
Reluctance to drop interest rates disappoints the markets
US rates markets entered the year enthusiastically pricing in over 160 basis points of cuts through 2024, and have since had to push back hard on both the timing and magnitude of interest rate cuts now expected by year-end.
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Features
An inflection point for India bonds
The impending inclusion of Indian government bonds (IGBs) in JP Morgan’s widely tracked $240bn (€220bn) Govern ment Bond Index-Emerging Markets (GBI-EM) index is seen as a milestone. However, while some asset managers hope it is the beginning of a more open investment culture, others are more circumspect.
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Opinion Pieces
ATP at 60: no plans to retire the guaranteed pensions model
Now approaching retirement age itself, Danish statutory pension fund ATP is using its 60th birthday as an opportunity to reinforce the validity of its guarantee-based investment model.
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News
German institutional investors boost corporate bonds allocation
Investments in government bonds fell from more than 36% to just over 30% of total allocations
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Interviews
Muzinich’s Tatjana Greil Castro on credit fundamentals
In one of the meeting rooms of the London office of Muzinich & Co are displayed a series of bond certificates from the past.
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Features
A bumper year for convertible bond issuance
The convertible bond market ended 2023 on a strong note with its main index – the Refinitiv Global Focus – returning 6% in the fourth quarter. The optimism has continued into 2024 on the back of reasonable valuations, historically low equity volatility and better opportunites.