Questionable optics for Fed Chair Warsh
New Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh’s ability to guide the US central bank will depend upon the market’s belief he is not beholden to President Donald Trump. Taking the oath in a White House ceremony did him no favours. It was the first time since President Ronald Reagan swore in Alan Greenspan that the ceremony […]
South Korea’s regulators are on a roll – don’t stop now
Fast reading South Korean regulators have already implemented meaningful and impressive measures to address the so-called ‘Korea discount’. But regulatory reform does not automatically mean company management is suddenly “on side”. An ongoing structural issue in South Korea’s public markets remains concentrated family control. It continues to give directors both the ability and the incentive […]
Market Snapshot
Equities rally despite concentration risk fears
Eurozone outlook darkens amid energy crunch
Fast reading The ECB kept its deposit rate at 2% in April, warning that risks to inflation and growth had both intensified. If the Iran conflict persists and energy prices remain high, Europe will be among the hardest-hit regional economies. The uncertain market backdrop has supported demand for euro-denominated money market funds, which offer the […]
Duration offers an opportunity as odds grow for Iran off-ramp
Sovereign developed-country bond yields have surged higher in recent weeks, propelled by oil hovering persistently around US$100 a barrel and the longer-than-once-expected conflict in the Persian Gulf. Recent inflation data in the US and abroad clearly reflects the surge in energy costs and has fueled concern of potentially broader inflation pressures, forcing central banks to […]
How does MDT’s investment approach respond to geopolitical risk events?
What is meant by “responding to major risk events” can vary meaningfully. For some investors, that may mean thinking opportunistically, where they want to allocate to certain asset classes or investment strategies that they expect to benefit to an outcome related to that risk event, or maybe moving away from certain asset classes that they […]
Oil shock not the only problem facing UK gilts
Fast reading The global energy shock continues to underpin a sell-off in sovereign bonds. Political developments and fiscal pressures add an additional level of uncertainty to the UK economy that is not directly mirrored in other core sovereign bond markets. The potential re-emergence of so-called ‘bond vigilantes’ could spell further trouble for the world’s fifth-largest […]
Market Snapshot
Energy crunch fears rattle bond markets
How does our trade finance process work?
Can you walk us through how the trade finance process works from origination to repayment? I’d describe the trade finance process as a three-step journey: sourcing, underwriting, and monitoring. This is core, bank-originated business, primarily involving senior secured loans that banks originate to hold on their own balance sheets. The purpose is to facilitate trade […]
Scale matters: navigating EM oil credit in volatile markets
EMD report Q2 2026
