MDT: Do quants dream of electric sheep?*

*“Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” is a 1968 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. The book served as the basis for the 1982 film Blade Runner directed by Ridley Scott and featuring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer and Daryl Hannah. Fast reading Quant investing typically sifts through vast amounts of data to […]

Credit investors threatened with tax hike on US income

manhattan skyline at dusk

Fast reading The US is weighing up legislation that could see foreign investors hit with a tax hike. In the event that section 899 is triggered, entities from “discriminatory foreign countries” would be hit by a tax increase on US income of up to 20%. The proposal raises the possibility of a slowdown in foreign […]

South Korea’s new dawn

An image showing the South Korean flag flying outside a high-rise office building.

market snapshot

Fed may do little in this push-me-pull-you market

a team of people lead a tug of war on a rope

It’s become a cliché but bond markets remained volatile in May, with investors ultimately discounting the latest tariff tantrums and re-embracing risk. US Treasury yields spiked once again as the federal budget and deficit took centre court, but this time other forms of fixed income investment (asset-backed, corporate, international and municipals) benefitted by comparison to […]

Riding the storm

birds eye viw of a surfer riding a big wave

Video transcript How have we navigated the volatility? ‘Liberation Day’ brought a tonne of volatility and uncertainty to the markets, and in trying to navigate through that we set up a series of five milestones to help confirm our bullish stance. The first thing we wanted to see was more dovish trade talk, talk about […]

Trump’s tariff rollout hits roadblock

US flag on cargo container in front of sky

market snapshot

What does the US debt downgrade mean?

A photo of the outside of the US Treasury

market snapshot

The ECB’s road ahead

navigating the certain uncertainties

How should credit investors navigate such an uncertain backdrop?

a hiker stands on top of a rock looking out over a mountain range

Fast reading Uncertainty stemming from the Republican administration’s economic policy has undermined confidence in capital markets. Credit ratings agency Moody’s has downgraded US sovereign debt to Aa1 from Aaa. Notwithstanding a reset on tariffs with China, many market drivers – for lenders, borrowers and investors – are in a holding pattern until an element of […]

What word best encapsulates the current economic environment?

definition of the word 'uncertainty' in a dictionary

Video transcript The word that best describes economic conditions right now has to be ‘uncertainty’. We hear it frequently on earnings calls from investors and across the capital markets, from all participants. By way of evidence, we searched the word uncertainty in the Fed’s ‘Beige Book’. The ‘Beige Book’ is a summary of economic conditions […]