A new era at the Federal Reserve may be taking shape. With a new chair, a new communication style, and a renewed focus on inflation, investors are reassessing what comes next for interest rates and bond markets.
As investors grapple with how artificial intelligence may reshape the economy, software has moved to center of the conversation. The sector’s underperformance in recent months reflects elevated uncertainty about the potential impact of AI on software business models. In our latest Equity iQ, Senior Research Analysts Chris Godby addresses the potential for software disruption and suggests that not all software businesses appear equally at risk.
Private credit strategies have been very popular in recent years, with elevated yields and seemingly low volatility. However, visibility into the performance of the underlying loans can often be limited. The publicly traded Business Development Companies (BDCs) offer a unique window into market sentiment toward these strategies. Recently, the weak performance across many BDCs may be signaling early signs of stress within portions of the private credit market.
As the S&P 500 has become more concentrated over the past 10 years, the expected volatility for the index has risen. In our latest Chart iQ, we’ve quantified just how significantly these changes have impacted the level of expected volatility for a 60/40 portfolio.
While SMID cap stocks continued to rally in the third quarter, their performance was led predominantly by low-quality companies. Our latest Chart iQ looks under the hood at the SMID cap stock universe, to dissect performance by quality characteristics and quantify the degree of low-quality underperformance.
With SMID cap stocks outperforming large caps in the third quarter, our latest Equity iQ looks at two potential catalysts for their sustained relative strength.
Investment grade credit spreads ended 2024 at their tightest levels in over 20 years. In our most recent Bond iQ, we consider what these valuation levels imply for forward excess returns and suggest that allocators consider a high-quality approach to corporate credit.
In our first Equity iQ of 2025, we argue that no matter what your macroeconomic views are heading into the new year, high-quality SMID cap stocks can be a winning strategy and warrant consideration from asset allocators.
While small and mid cap valuations continue to look historically attractive relative to U.S. large cap, our latest Equity iQ addresses two important risk considerations for investors contemplating tactical shifts within their equity portfolios.
While inflation and macroeconomic uncertainty have made the current cycle unique, our latest Chart iQ looks back to the end of prior Federal Reserve hiking cycles for hints on the potential direction of yields from here.