David Ashworth

The G20 is a forum of 19 countries and the EU that convenes to discuss policy level enhancements required for the global economy and the group.

The S&P 500 index, tracked by the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) and the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV), rose 8.3% in October.

Impeachment proceedings will begin against Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff after the country’s lower house accepted a plea for the same.

Investor flows in high yield bond funds turned positive last week. Net inflows totaled $906 million in the week ended May 22.

The JPMorgan Intrepid European Fund’s assets were spread across 79 holdings as of December 2015.

The Ivy European Opportunities Fund fell 5.5% in August from a month ago—the least among the six mutual funds under this review. Beyond this period, the fund’s performance has been less impressive.

The information technology, consumer discretionary, and healthcare sectors form the core of the MFS Growth Fund.

Since the rate hike by the Fed in December 2015, Banco de Mexico has raised rates three times totaling 125 basis points.

In evaluating the FOMC’s performance over the past three years, Kocherlakota mentioned that the unemployment rate fell to 5.6%.

Vanguard PRIMECAP Fund states that fund managers have a long-term perspective while managing this fund and they do it with an “extremely low turnover.”

Net inflows in high yield bond mutual funds were negative for the second time in eight weeks. Net outflows totaled $1.0 billion in the week ended March 20.

In this series, we’ll look at the International Monetary Fund’s expectations for economic growth around the world, and we’ll explore how these projections might affect your investments.

The G20 finance ministers and central bank governors emphasized the role of fiscal policy in building confidence and supporting domestic demand.

For the past month or so, several equity investors have anticipated a rate hike and factored it into stock prices, readying their portfolios for the event.

AlixPartners provides financial advisory and business services. It issued leveraged loans worth $1.1 billion last week. The B2/B+ rated covenant-lite Term Loan B was issued for seven years.

US non-farm payrolls rose by 295,000 in February 2015 from a downwardly revised January number of 239,000 compared to 257,000 reported earlier.

The World Bank has lowered its expected growth rate for the Eurozone to 1.6% in 2016 and in 2017—0.1 percentage point lower than January’s projection.

2016 has mostly been about macro trends, thus presenting a different set of challenges for active fund managers who mostly focus on companies rather than economic and sector trends.

Two rallies after the FOMC statement led the NASDAQ Composite Index to its highest closing in 15 years, just below its all-time high of 5,048.62 in 2000.

The minutes of the FOMC’s (Federal Open Market Committee) March 2015 meeting revealed that policymakers were happy with improvements in the labor market.

Potential new developments from the Fed include a suggestion by the subcommittee on communications that median values of policymakers’ projections be published.

Because the Fed wants to maintain stability in US financial markets, it is important to assess whether present foreign developments will put the domestic market through tumultuous times.

Inflation in Japan, as measured by the consumer price index, rose just 0.2% in July from a year ago. The Bank of Japan has a target of 2% for inflation in Japan.

The US Federal Reserve met on September 16 and 17 in one of the most anticipated monetary policy meetings in recent memory.

Treasury yields barely reacted to the March meeting minutes on a day-to-day basis. Treasury bills ended unchanged on April 6 from the previous day.

The health of the US labor market is possibly the primary reason the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) had confidence to raise interest rates in December 2015

In his June 2016 investment outlook, Bill Gross stated that “credit risk or credit ‘carry’ offers little reward relative to potential losses.”

The ten-year Treasury notes auction saw a lower bid-to-cover ratio than last month. The ratio was 2.6x—compared to ~3x in December.

Goldman Sachs expects WTI crude oil price to be $55 per barrel in 1Q17 and 2Q17. These estimates were raised from $45 and $50 per barrel, respectively.

The JPMorgan Large Cap Growth Fund Class A invests in “large-cap companies with market caps similar to those within…the Russell 1000 Growth Index.”

US stocks didn’t have a great start last week. Reports emanating from China drove US markets down sharply, but they rebounded the next day when Microsoft (MSFT) helped them bounce back.

Donald Trump has been vociferous about cutting taxes. He intends to reduce the current seven tax brackets to three.

Though policymakers have clearly stated that they’d be data-driven while deciding on effecting a rate hike, it seems that there’s more than economic indicators on their mind.

US equity markets gained in the week ended April 24, 2015. But the week was all about the NASDAQ, which gained 3.2%.

Some participants had maintained that the Fed shouldn’t raise rates in September, but many participants thought that the Fed would “liftoff” at this meeting.

If spreads are rising or widening, credit conditions can be assumed to be worsening. Spreads widen when growth is slow and economic conditions worsen.

Investor flows in high yield bond funds were positive last week, making it the second successive week of inflows.

Kocherlakota gave a presentation at the annual American Economic Association conference. He was firmly in favor of letting the Fed be free in its decision making.

Rate cut transmissions by commercial banks, inflation, and monetary policy actions by the Fed will have the largest influence on India’s future.

Monetary policy normalization refers to two aspects: the federal funds rate and the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet.

New home sales jumped 11.6% in December from a month ago to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 481,000.

The January 2015 meeting minutes showed that several policymakers weren’t in favor of dropping “patience.” Changing the language is a big deal.

Consumer spending remained subdued in February. The harsh weather kept consumers indoors. Individuals used the gains from lower gasoline prices to boost their savings.

If the RBI announced a rate cut too early, it would spur consumer spending and send inflation soaring, forcing the central bank to raise the repo rate.

The Reserve Bank of India (or RBI) is India’s central bank. It maintained the status quo on its key rates in its fifth bi-monthly monetary policy statement. The statement was released on December 2, 2014.

The RBI had headroom to make a further rate reduction in August, but then the bank resisted, citing the rise in core inflation.

Although volatility isn’t necessarily a problem, it makes it difficult for the government to make concrete decisions for industries. However, the government is determined to give the manufacturing sector a push.

The Aberdeen Latin American Equity Fund Class A fell by 6.3% in September from August. But between September and October 28, the fund has risen by 6.0%.

The Matthews Japan Fund – Investor Class (MJFOX) fell 0.4% in December 2015 from the previous month. In the three- and six-month periods ended December 31, the fund rose 10.4% and fell 1.2%, respectively.

Cushing, Oklahoma WTI prices fell to $41.93 a barrel on August 17—the lowest since early March 2009. Iran flooding the market with its oil is one of the reasons for this fall.

Markets were disappointed by the weak retail sales report. Estimates for advance retail sales were $442.9 billion in December 2014.

The Board’s Consumer Confidence Index rose to 92.6 in December—compared to 91 in November. For November, the index was revised from an initially reported value of 88.7.

The financials sector continues to be the top-invested sector, with four of the 12 funds choosing it as their most preferred sector. However, the number of funds choosing financials is down from six in the previous quarter.

FLFAX fell 2.8% in November 2015 from a month prior. In the three- and six-month periods ended November 30, the fund fell 4.8% and 20.4%, respectively.

Kocherlakota asked “Should the fed funds rate target range be raised soon?” He thinks it will be a few years before PCE inflation returns to the target.

In the 12 months leading up to January, prices fell 0.1%, the first decline since October 2009. In December, consumer prices rose by 0.8% year-over-year.

Information technology and healthcare are the top two sectors. Together, they command slightly less than 65% of the Vanguard PRIMECAP Fund’s assets.

Job additions, which had scared policymakers and market participants alike with the downward revision for April and dismal additions in May, seem firmly back on track.

The second estimate from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (or BEA) showed that gross domestic product (or GDP) growth for the US economy slowed to 2.2%.

Last week, investor flows in high-yield bond funds remained in negative territory for the second week in a row. They’ve witnessed inflows of $2.6 billion YTD.

Some FOMC participants thought that the unemployment rate was close to or below what they assessed to be the long-term normal rate.

The September FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) meeting had surprised market participants with three dissenting votes.

The Franklin Growth Fund – Class A (FKGRX) fell 2.0% in December 2015 from a month ago.

A slowing global economy is also a worrying factor for Charles Evans. Companies with an export focus will hire fewer people if there are fewer orders.

The EP Latin America Fund Class A invests in companies that derive “at least 50% of its revenues or profits from business activities in Latin America.”

Investor flows in high yield bond funds returned to negative territory last week, after having seen inflows in the previous week.

Things look fine for now Previously in this series, we discussed how mutual funds have a notably larger holding of corporate bonds at present than they had before the financial crisis of 2008. We’ve also talked about how regulatory changes could impact the role of banks as market makers. At the same time, the role […]

Investor flows in high yield bond funds were in positive territory last week.

The addition of “at its next meeting” in the FOMC’s October statement has led market participants to believe that a rate hike may be effected in its December meeting.

US Treasury yields moved uniformly upwards across the yield curve in the week ended June 5, 2015.

From the perspective of monetary policy, a strong rate of economic growth is required for a central bank to tighten policy.

The FOMC will meet for its next scheduled meeting on March 17–18, 2015. Markets will be watching for a change in the language of the FOMC’s forward guidance.

Investment-grade bond (AGG) funds saw net inflows of $1.53 billion in the week ending May 1, 2015.

Policymakers are now hinting toward a rate hike in June. But markets seem to be feeling otherwise.

According to Lipper, leveraged loan funds saw outflows for the week ended August 19, making it the fourth such successive week. The quantum of outflows was $754 million, the highest so far in 2015.

On December 10, 2015, Third Avenue Management announced that redemptions were barred from the Third Avenue Focused Credit Fund (TFCVX) (TFCIX).

The Bank of England decided not to cut its interest rates to new record lows when it met on July 14, 2016. The country’s central bank was under pressure to act.

The Federal Reserve has toned down its expectations of US economic growth in 2016, given the state of the global economy. It remains quite confident on the domestic front, though, as projections for the unemployment rate have been reduced.

The JPMorgan Intrepid European Fund Class A has fallen 7.6% year-to-date, making it the worst performer in the group of 12 funds chosen for this review.

What should fixed income investors do today? Generally, widening spreads provide a buying opportunity for investors, because spreads widen when yield of a security rises.

If you’re a moderate investor invested in high-yield bond mutual funds, you could consider moving some of your assets to investment grade funds (OPIGX).

In this series, we’ve reviewed seven LatAm-focused mutual funds (BDERX) in terms of their sectoral changes over the past year and the possible reasons for their performances in 2016.

The Hennessy Japan Fund (HJPNX) dived by 8.2% in September from the previous month—the worst performer in September among the nine funds we’re reviewing.

Leading the ETF pack for investing in Singapore equities is the iShares MSCI Singapore ETF (EWS).

Inflation remains a concern for the Eurozone. The World Bank said that though deflation concerns have reduced in 2015, they have not gone away completely.

BlackRock is not upbeat about fixed income in 2016. It’s more optimistic about stocks than it is about bonds, specifically European and Japanese equities.

Most members of the FOMC want to move cautiously in regards to rate hikes. They expect the factors that are holding down growth to only give way slowly.

The EP Latin America Fund A (EPLAX) fell by 8.4% in August 2015, from July 2015—the second smallest decline among the eight funds in this review.

In this series, we have reviewed ten Europe-focused mutual funds in terms of their sectoral changes over the past year and the possible reasons for their performance in 2015.

Japanese housing starts rose in July 2015, but their pace slowed compared to a month ago. Housing starts rose by 7.4% in July compared to a year ago.

The US Department of the Treasury conducted the weekly auction for four-week, or one-month, Treasury bills (BIL) (MINT), or T-bills, on January 21.

The Asia-Pacific region provides radically different investment opportunities in one region. It will be very hard for another region to provide the diversity of Asia-Pacific.

FDGRX’s core sectors are information technology, consumer discretionary, and healthcare. The first two sectors make up a little over 60% of the portfolio.

Euro Pacific Asset Management offers the EP Latin America Fund A (EPLAX), which aims for capital appreciation by investing “at least 80% of its net assets.”

Stanley Fischer expressed his views on the US economy at the G30 Annual International Banking Seminar on October 11. This came three days after the dovish minutes of the FOMC September meeting.

FDGRX’s assets were invested across 398 holdings as of June 2016, when it was managing assets worth $36.6 billion as of the end of June.

VHIAX stands tenth among the 12 funds chosen for this review. In the one-year period, the fund placed dead last among its peers.

Geographical diversification allows your portfolio to keep earning returns in case your primary geography has not been doing well.

Most FOMC participants indicated that they preferred to consider a possible rate hike on a meeting-by-meeting basis—without providing any hints about the timing of a rate hike.

Mutual funds follow a bottom-up research approach. They focus on companies rather than macroeconomic and sector trends.