Investment Insights

On this Talking Heads podcast, Marc Fleury, Head of Liquidity Solutions tells Chief Market Strategist Daniel Morris that money market funds now pay a 3-5% yield depending on the currency. He notes the investment team applies a strict selection process to ensure a low-risk exposure to resilient counterparties, while also implementing the sustainability guidelines that have been integrated into investment processes.   

In this special edition of our Talking heads podcast, chief market strategist Daniel Morris asks Séverine Piquet, head of credit research, for her assessment of the developments in the financial sector. She points to the kneejerk anxiety in markets and underlines the importance of the ‘measured backstop’ provided by the authorities. 

Listen to this Talking heads podcast with Edward Lees, Environmental Strategies Group co-head, as he shares some of the opportunities he sees in environmentally focused stocks with chief market strategist Daniel Morris. For more insights, visit Viewpoint: https://viewpoint.bnpparibas-am.com/  Download the Viewpoint app: https://onelink.to/tpxq34   Follow us on LinkedIn: https://bnpp.lk/am   

Listen to this Talking heads podcast with portfolio manager absolute return Cedric Bernard-Villeneuve with chief market strategist Daniel Morris. They discuss the sensibility of smaller central bank rate rises and the wide opportunity set in the fixed income asset class. Cedric highlights the potential presented by short duration trades and by positioning for steeper bond yield curves.   For more insights, visit Viewpoint: https://viewpoint.bnpparibas-am.com/  Download the Viewpoint app: https://onelink.to/tpxq34   Follow us on LinkedIn: https://bnpp.lk/am   

Listen to this Talking heads podcast with Christophe Montcerisier, head of real estate debt, and chief market strategist Daniel Morris. Their topics include fundamental characteristics of real estate debt such as its role as an inflation hedge – through the floating rate coupons on the debt – and the predictability of cash flows resulting from the structure of leases.  

High-yield bonds – defined as corporate bonds rated below BBB− or Baa3 by established credit rating agencies – have had a good run since the fourth quarter of 2022. Evaluating the outlook for this asset class requires taking a view on current valuations and determining how conditions in the US economy this year may impact corporate America.  

In recent years, food security has become a more prominent issue for consumers and governments, alongside energy security. Beyond supply chain disruptions and more extreme weather, the war in Ukraine has increased the strains. Food security concerns not just food growing, production and processing, but access to safe and nutritional food. 

Listen to this Talking heads podcast with Jane Ho, head of stewardship at BNP Paribas Asset Management for the Asia Pacific region (APAC), and chief market strategist Daniel Morris as they discuss the evolving role of our stewardship in Asia. 

Listen to this Talking heads podcast with David Bouchoucha, head of private assets, and chief market strategist Daniel Morris as they discuss the strategic case for investing in private assets.  

Listen to our quarterly asset allocation podcast with global head of multi-asset Maya Bhandari and chief market strategist Daniel Morris. They review the four key determinants of financial market behavior this year and the investment opportunities that follow from that assessment for the main asset classes.  

Given China‘s pivotal role as the world’s second-largest economy, its recent refocusing on lifting growth should be a tailwind for other economies. The shift should support those countries benefiting from the expected pickup in Chinese travel abroad and domestic consumer spending after Beijing scrapped its stringent mobility-restricting rules to contain the spread of Covid. 

Picking investable assets for a portfolio can be hard. Fundamental analysis focuses on what investors believe will happen in the future. Quantitative investing, by contrast, focuses on the facts: how historical data relationships may give us insight into future market moves, helping us to systematically select assets on the basis of signals or factors. 

After a bright start, US mortgage-backed securities face a sunnier year in which this fixed income asset class could reverse part of the gloomy outcome of a challenging and volatile 2022. With the peak in inflation behind us and the end of the US Federal Reserve’s rate rising cycle in sight, investors have an opportunity to benefit for a likely bounce-back. 

In what can be expected to still be volatile currency markets, the US dollar looks set to lose further ground in 2023 as its lustre as a high-yielding hedge fades. Expect the euro and the Japanese yen to pick up the baton as both economies profit from the gradual reopening of the Chinese economy now that Beijing has dropped its strict Covid-fighting regime. 

We anticipate a better year for emerging market corporate debt on the back of a brighter outlook for China and the wider Asian region. However, a raft of uncertainties including those concerning inflation and geopolitics, could make for a volatile environment in 2023.

Since biodiversity loss affects large swaths of the economy, it should be front of mind for investors. Not least because, as Adam Kanzer, head of stewardship for the Americas, points out, nature loss also makes meeting the world’s climate goals harder. 

Sergey Pergamentsev, head of Institutional Structured Management in the Multi Asset Quantitative and Solutions team, and co-head of the Investment Insights Centre Andrew Craig discuss recent developments in liability-driven investing (LDI), a strategy institutional investors such as pension funds use to match investments and future liabilities. 

The sell-off in bond markets this year has driven yields to levels that merit closer attention, says Victoria Whitehead, senior portfolio manager for European investment-grade (IG) credit. Victoria sees eurozone IG credit as attractive on the basis that risk premia are commensurate with much higher default rates than she thinks will actually materialise.    

Slower growth (and eventually, lower rates of inflation) will likely come in 2023 thanks to restrictive central bank monetary policy. What conclusions should investors draw for their allocations to equities and fixed income around the world? 

Thematic environmental strategies face countervailing forces in the near term. Support may come from the ‘green shoots’ of the recent growth stock recovery, offset by the downdraft of recessionary risk. Investors with a longer-term view should stay focused on the tailwinds and enduring drivers of demand including regulatory and legislative support.