U.S. dollar: Victim or victor?

Pride notwithstanding, the falling dollar can be good news; Draghi edges ever closer to a taper; EU's Brexit hardliners show their mettle

A Matter of Time

ESG and Credit Ratings

Credit Rating Agencies are making meaningful progress in identifying and reflecting environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in the credit rating process. This is both welcome and encouraging, but more needs to be done to ensure the rewards fixed income investors can expect reflect the risks they are taking.

Mid-Week Bond Update

Goldilocks is back

Global sovereign and corporate bonds rallied over the past five trading days, as the recent central bank hawkish tone reversed and stubbornly soft US data threw cold water over reflation hopes. The goldilocks scenario in which growth is weak enough to warrant low rates but strong enough to...

Municipal Market Update: June

Western Asset examines recent trends in the muni bond market and provides its outlook about conditions ahead.

Global equities:

Emerging Markets: The Why and The How

Finding capital returns is a difficult challenge in a world of low growth expectations and low interest rates. Yet in this environment, emerging markets (EMs) can offer attractive access to equity growth potential.

U.S. consumers: Not so hot

Consumers stayed cool to price rises, just as Fed Chair Janet Yellen was reconsidering her bullish stance on inflation; OPEC showed signs of fatigue by nudging its own goalposts

Western Asset Global Outlook

Could the Fed be more cautious about future hikes?

The current steady but unspectacular global growth backdrop has not materially changed. We remain optimistic that global growth of around 3% is sustainable while recognizing that high debt loads and other headwinds, including low productivity and...

Small-Cap's Road Back to Normal

Portfolio Manager Chuck Royce and Co-CIO Francis Gannon see a consolidating asset class ready to make its next move up.

Mid-Week Bond Update

Canada feeds hawk plot

Most global bond markets suffered a third consecutive week of sell-offs, although losses eased on Wednesday after US Federal Reserve (Fed) chair Janet Yellen questioned persistent low inflation, something that until now the Fed had dismissed as temporary. Despite’s Wednesday’s sovereign rally...

Global bond yields: Curveball

Fixed-income markets finally looked to believe the world's major central banks about normalization; crude-oil markets searched for a steady price; U.S. jobs told a tale of two trends.

Mid-Week Bond Update

From DC to Sintra via Paris: a 1st half story

Global bond markets ended the first half of the year as they started it: prospects of fast growth, especially in the US, pushed sovereign yields higher, supporting spread sectors and the most equity-like fixed income assets such as...

Hawks of a feather

A flock of central bankers sing the same tune; U.S. consumers keep their powder dry; France and the U.S. switch places on drilling