Unusual move sees manager Richard Woolnough protect £15 billion M&G Optimal Income fund from high bond prices and rising inflation.
Woolnough moves to 'negative duration' on UK bonds
The country’s leading bond manager, Richard Woolnough, has moved to ‘negative duration’ on UK debt for the first time in response to the rising threat of inflation and the surge in bond prices since the EU referendum.
Expressed in years, duration is the measure used to show a bond fund’s sensitivity to interest rate changes.
The current overall duration for Woolnough's 15 Billion M&G Optimal Income fund is currently at a low 2.6 years, reflecting the view that interest rates in the developed world are expected to slowly rise following the first increase in US rates at the end of last year.
Rising interest rates are bad for fixed interest bonds as they make their returns look unattractive. Rates also tend to rise when inflation is increasing, which erodes the fixed returns from bonds. An inflation or interest rate ‘shock’ can cause bond prices to fall quickly, as in 1994 when an unexpected series of US interest rate rises caused the bonds market to temporarily collapse and hit confidence in broader stock market.
Tax Office data shows that unpaid tax obligations are expected to reach 7.618 billion euros from January to July. Each month, foreclosures increase while more tax payers are crushing under the burden as they enter the state’s “black” list.
Equity valuations between Japanese and European banks will converge with quantitative easing (QE) programs and negative interest rate policies set to continue for the long term, according to a team at JPMorgan.
With euro-area inflation stuck near zero for almost two years and Brexit now threatening to undercut the region’s recovery, economists see European Central Bank President Mario Draghi as highly likely to lengthen quantitative easing for a second time. That would take the asset-buying program beyond its current end-date of March 2017 and above the target of 1.7 trillion euros ($1.9 trillion).
Suncor Energy Seeks Permission to Abandon Some Oil-Sands Assets
Suncor Energy Inc., SU -0.58 % Canada’s largest oil producer, is in talks with government officials for permission to “strand,” or abandon, some high cost and greenhouse gas-intensive crude-oil deposits, the company’s chief executive said Wednesday. The Calgary-based company is seeking an easing of rules designed to maximize oil-sands production from leases on government land, CEO Steve Williams said at a Barclays BCS -0.66 % energy conference in New York, reiterating a strategy he first announced in July. “We’ve begun to have conversations with the government of Alberta and the current regulators about the design of their policy, which actually requires the maximum amount of resource to be extracted regardless of the economic or environmental value,” he said. The request comes as Suncor and other oil producers struggle to cut costs amid […]
