Tag: Markets

Among the remarkable characteristics of today’s global fixed-income marketplace is the $15 trillion invested in negatively yielding bonds.

“We just had an asset-allocation meeting and we spent probably half of it talking about global trade tensions and the China-U.S. relationship,” says Bob Brown, CIO at Northern Trust. “This is a big deal for the markets. The two largest economies in the world have changed the nature of their relationship.”

Individual investors expect roughly twice the yearly returns forecast by their advisers and investment managers.

A new academic paper published by the TIAA Institute shows little difference in behavior among undergraduate students, young adults, middle-aged people and older subjects when it comes to rationally navigating uncertain conditions.  

Account values fell sharply from the previous quarter and were 6.3% lower than the previous year, according to Charles Schwab’s SDBA Indicators Report.

The Secretary of the Commonwealth says the FinTech Working Group is the first dedicated team established by a state securities regulator specifically to provide support to, and receive advice from, fintech businesses.

Liability-driven investing is growing more important as pension plans broadly move into a phase where they are not growing but instead need to be focused on meeting their benefit obligations.

During a webcast hosted by ACA Compliance Group, Allison Charley, a former SEC examinations office leader, explained the regulator’s internal process for picking audit targets; other speakers noted the SEC’s increased focus on suitability issues and cybersecurity.

LIMRA anticipates equity markets will slow modestly this year, while interest rates will continue to rise; the organization expects conditions to promote growth in annuity purchases by long-term investors.

Aside from ensuring diversification, plan advisers can help refocus participants on their respective time horizons, whether it’s a Millennial looking at retirement 30 years down the line, or a Baby Boomer hoping to retire in the near term.

Omar Aguilar and Brett Wander agree that global growth is likely to slow some in 2019 and that volatility will persist as liquidity decreases, but they contest the idea that downturn is on the horizon.

Despite slowing global growth, disparate inflation rates, and continued normalization of U.S. monetary policy, economists with Vanguard and J.P. Morgan Asset Management believe that a near-term recession will be avoided.

Despite clients' tendency to focus on equity performance, half of advisers surveyed by Incapital expect their clients will be increasing allocations to fixed income or cash over the next 12 months.

If they do not embrace immigration in a big way, developed economies are likely to run into labor shortages that will curtail their growth potential; emerging markets will likely benefit from demographic trends.