2 min readThe fallout from the ongoing U.S. and China trade war continues to impact both countries and may be contributing to global weakness. Chinese economic growth fell to 6.2% in the second quarter, the lowest level since record-keeping began in March of 1992, as the value of the country’s exports to the U.S. dropped by 8.2%…
6 min readIntroduction The President of the ECB, Mario Draghi, recently performed an about-face on the direction of interest rates. After having previously announced plans to begin raising interest rates out of the negative range, Draghi altered course significantly, stating that rates will likely remain negative until at least 2021. Negative rates, initially intended to act as…
2 min readChinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to resume trade negotiations ahead of the G20 summit last weekend, with the U.S. granting a reprieve on certain Huawei restrictions and on further tariff increases. China agreed to buy additional American agricultural goods in exchange. Stock markets surged on Monday in reaction to the…
2 min readEquity managers concerned about the long-term health of their investments have long had to take environmental, social and governance concerns into account. So-called ‘ESG’ investment guidelines help them steer around all kinds of management crises that might lay waste to returns in otherwise pristine equity portfolios. Until recently, however, fixed-income liquidity investors managing short-term portfolios…
14 min readDOWNLOAD FULL REPORT Abstract The popularity of responsible investing has extended to the fixed income and liquidity management fields in recent years. Incorporating environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in cash investment decisions makes sense as part of overall credit risk management. In addition to challenges related to disclosure, criteria, measure and verification, liquidity portfolios…
2 min readMoney market funds have become more resilient since SEC reforms transformed the industry with higher credit, liquidity, transparency, and oversight standards. The 2008 bank run that broke the buck in the old prime funds is, for now, just a bad memory fading into the rear view mirror. But unanticipated side effects of those historic reforms…
17 min readDOWNLOAD FULL REPORT Abstract The 2014 money market fund reform brought forth drastic change to the corporate cash management landscape, significantly impacting investors, issuers and fund sponsors. While there is little doubt that money market funds are more resilient following the implementation of the reform’s higher credit, liquidity, transparency, and oversight standards, it also had…
2 min readTrade Dispute Escalation The apparent lack of progress in U.S.-China trade negotiations stoked volatility in the financial markets in early May. On Friday, President Trump imposed 25% tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods with China responding in kind on $60 billion of U.S. goods. And just this morning, Trump targeted Chinese telecom giant Huawei…
5 min readBrexit has been delayed until Halloween, a fitting deadline for what has turned into a three-year nightmare for the British populace. UK Prime Minister Theresa May had pushed for a shorter extension, out until the end of June, in hopes that the UK would not have to participate in the upcoming EU elections. However, it…
2 min readOverview The FOMC concluded its two-day meeting on Wednesday, May 1st and, as expected, kept the fed funds target range unchanged at 2.25-2.50%. Echoing its comments in March, the Fed expressed comfort with their current “wait and see” approach to monetary policy. The equity markets declined slightly as Fed Chair Powell attributed the weakness in…