Absolute Return

Absolute Return, Monthly Coffee Break

The market is walking a thin line between financial safety and FOMO

The market narrative remains very cautious and divided as to the path to follow over the next few quarters. While some investors prefer to look to the encouraging observable data points being published regarding earnings and inflation, many are hanging back, pointing to an inevitable deterioration of consumer spending and liquidity provided by banks to finance the economy.
Absolute Return, Monthly Coffee Break

“Lego House"

March was a challenging and volatile month, with investment sentiment going through a whole variety of shades in a single month.
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Economic strength and inflation more resilient than expected

During February, economic and inflation data came in slightly above expectations, which helped cool the market down. Central banks reiterated the message that the market should expect monetary policy to maintain its course until we see significant signs that inflation is abating.
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A message in a bottle …

2023 started out on the right foot for holders of financial assets, as the overall performance of equities and bonds was positive. However, a significant part of the financial community is bedazzled by the vigour of the rebound.
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Don’t forget the DIVA

In 2022, the markets repriced risk premiums in financial assets, quickly adjusting to the inflation risk and to the interest rate hikes implemented by central banks that followed.
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Relief rally heading into year-end

Although the economy continues to decelerate, equities staged a strong rebound during the month of October.
Absolute Return, Asset Allocation, Johann Mauchand, Research Paper, Steeve Brument

Smile! CTA convexity is not lost…

If the smile measures how the portfolio value reacts to changes in the underlying markets, then maybe we should measure the smiles – and this is what our investment team has been doing.
Absolute Return, Monthly Coffee Break

Race to the bottom

September was another very challenging month for investors. The market is subject to considerable uncertainty, with no clear evidence of the next step.
Absolute Return, Monthly Coffee Break

Nobody wants to fight the Fed

After a two-month period of improving risk appetite, the market started to head downwards in mid-August, influenced by the outcome of the Jackson Hole meeting. Jerome Powell’s hawkish tone obviously had a strong impact on the markets, but it was not the only strong driver. The deterioration of energy supply in Europe as we are quickly approaching winter is a cause for concern for industrial output, but also consumers, who will be facing record energy bills.
Absolute Return, Monthly Coffee Break

The year of the bear

As the investment community was slowly preparing for a well-deserved summer break, a higher-than-expected US CPI read revived fears that a recession might be around the corner. Uncontrolled inflation is pushing central bankers to continue raising the cost of capital, as the Fed did at its June meeting.
Absolute Return, Nadège Dufossé, Steeve Brument, Video

In search of absolute return across asset classes

As governments continue to maintain low interest rates through the COVID-19 pandemic, and the correlation between asset classes remains high, the questions of diversification, income and attractive returns are firmly on investors’ agenda. You can now listen to the replay of our recent webinar which looked at the relevance of the multi asset absolute return approach in today’s investment markets and introduced our two risk-rated portfolios that meet your requirements.
Absolute Return, Monthly Coffee Break

Drawing a line in the sand

Markets remain nervous, as investors perceive the Fed as being behind the curve in taking control over inflation. Rising prices are biting into consumer sentiment and savings, leading to decreasing growth expectations.
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Brace for impact

There are currently so many headwinds to the economy that it is difficult to isolate THE driver that is having the biggest impact on deteriorating economic fundamentals in only a small paragraph.
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Changing volatility regimes

The global economic outlook is foggy, and the start of the year has kept on adding additional layers of complexity.
Absolute Return, Monthly Coffee Break

Value has value again

January was a challenging month for investors.
Absolute Return, Monthly Coffee Break

Every breath you take

“Every breath you take, and every move you make, every bond you break, every step you take, I’ll be watching you.” Obviously, The Police were not referring to monetary policies, but it sure is a nice musical framing of October’s market situation and development.
Absolute Return, Monthly Coffee Break

Taking the economy off life support

The world economy has significantly recovered since the lows of 2020 and, in most developed markets, it is close to pre-pandemic levels.
Absolute Return, Monthly Coffee Break

China drops the hammer on education stocks

July saw a continuation of last month’s market trends. Long-term US Treasury yields continued to drop, with investors adapting their positioning to a slightly more hawkish stance from the Fed, and growth stocks continuing to outperform as investors feared peak growth might be behind us.
Absolute Return, Monthly Coffee Break

Reflation trade cools down

The outcome of the FOMC meeting was June’s main macro event
Absolute Return, Monthly Coffee Break

Inflation concerns dominate market narrative

As the percentage of vaccinated people keeps increasing, we are getting closer to a return to our normal previous lives, or something close to it

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