Tag Archives: Investment Grade
Tracking Fixed Income Performance and Innovation
What do duration, the yield curve and credit trends tell us about the evolving fixed income landscape? S&P DJI’s Anu Ganti and Ben Vörös explore the recent performance of S&P DJI’s iBoxx indices in Europe and highlight the latest innovations in the fixed income indexing toolkit.
- Categories Fixed Income
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- Categories
- Fixed Income
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Sukuk Market Hits USD 1 Trillion This Summer: What You Should Know
The global sukuk market has surpassed the USD 1 trillion mark in outstanding issuances, achieving a significant milestone that affirms its role within the fixed income sector. The Dow Jones Sukuk Total Return Index (ex-Reinvestment), launched in April 2006, has served as a benchmark for measuring the global investment grade (IG) USD-denominated sukuk market during…
- Categories Fixed Income, Thematics
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Paying Dividends: Measuring Rising Income against Declining Risks in the iBoxx Fixed Income Indices
With the ZIRP world1 firmly in the rear view, the “income” in fixed income is back. As yields collapsed to record lows, income-starved investors sought alternative sources of income such as dividend strategies, which attracted record flows in related products throughout 2022. Now, with investment grade bond yields hitting as high as 6%, bonds are…
- Categories Fixed Income
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Municipal Bonds Are Being Left Behind
Corporate bonds have garnered a lot of attention lately, as the Federal Reserve continues to stabilize markets by establishing multiple facilities that support both the primary and secondary corporate bond markets. As a result, credit spreads have tightened significantly from where they were in March. Since March 23, 2020, the option-adjusted spread on the S&P…
- Categories Fixed Income
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- Categories
- Fixed Income
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Defensiveness of the Credit Strength Strategy in U.S. Corporate Bonds
Our fundamental credit strength strategy uses credit ratios to screen out issuers with risky credit profiles and construct corporate bond portfolios with strong credit quality (for a detailed methodology, please see our previous blog). Our research shows that a credit strength strategy can potentially reduce return volatility and improve drawdowns. Our goal in this blog…
- Categories Fixed Income
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Puerto Rico Bonds: A Surging Force
After wreaking havoc on the municipal bond markets, Puerto Rico bonds have recently been adding value through their recovery. Bonds rallied after the latest debt restructuring deal was struck between the commonwealth and the bond holders. Additional supporting news, as mentioned in an article from Reuters,[1] was a federal court ruling affirming the budgetary powers…
- Categories Fixed Income
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- Categories
- Fixed Income
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Laddered Protection
Continuing the theme of rising interest rates and following up from my last blog, “With all the News of Higher Interest Rates, Don’t Forget About Floating-Rate Debt,” bond laddering is a strategy that provides increased income and the ability to adjust the stream of income in a rising-interest-rate environment. The approach is to invest in…
- Categories Fixed Income
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A Quick Performance Check on U.S. Preferreds
There are only a couple weeks to go until the end of the year, and for a while now, the investing public has seen plenty of material supporting the benefits or risks of diversifying a portfolio through the use of preferred securities. This hybrid type product touts the benefits of high yields, steady income, and…
- Categories Fixed Income
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Canadian Update
Canada’s economy has been accelerating due to increased consumer spending and a rebound in business investment. Consumer spending driven by vehicle purchases and real estate investment has lifted the economy, along with improved business investment. The economy and its growth trend now appear to be on a more secure path. As of May 31, 2017,…
- Categories Fixed Income
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Bridging the Volatility Gap between IG and HY
The goal of the S&P U.S. High Yield Low Volatility Corporate Bond Index is to construct a high-yield bond portfolio with low credit risk and low return volatility by applying a low volatility factor. Does the index methodology truly deliver the effect of reducing volatility? The back-tested results of the 17-year period ending Feb. 28,…
- Categories Factors, Fixed Income
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- Categories
- Factors, Fixed Income
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