Download PDF US Major US indices performed well this week despite intra-week turmoil, particularly in the Nasdaq 100 and Nasdaq Composite. Russell 2000 showed the largest increase, topping last week’s close by 6.0%, with the Russell 3000 Value performing better (+5.1% WoW change) than the Russell 2000 Growth (3.2% WoW Read more…
Download PDF Introduction: Fixed Income Markets Performance High inflation and rising interest rates have governed the credit markets in 2022. Year-to-date, high yield bonds are down approximately 16% and investment grade bonds are down approximately 23%. The 2022 macroeconomic environment has wiped away the strong recovery seen by the credit Read more…
Download PDF Introduction In 2022, the number of IPOs has plummeted to lows comparable to post-financial crisis levels after the highs of 2021 with individual deal values falling due to lower valuations. In September, the number of US IPOs was a mere 20% of the ones in the same period Read more…
Download PDF Introduction The term “Liability Driven Investment”, also known as LDI, covers investment policies with the goal of covering current and future liabilities of the investor. As such, it is not a benchmark-driven investment strategy since it does not need to outperform any benchmark, but rather only needs to Read more…
Download PDF Introduction The current macroeconomic landscape is shaped by high inflation, increasing interest rates, and growing risk aversion. The diverging realities nations are facing due to the Russia-Ukraine war, the ensuing energy crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, the looming global recession, and more, are putting policymakers’ decisions in the limelight. Read more…
Download PDF USA On Monday, the ISM Manufacturing PMI for September came in below expectations at a level of 50.9 against the consensus estimate of 52.2. This also marked the lowest level since May 2020. This reading supported stocks and bonds at the beginning of the week as markets interpreted Read more…
Download PDF Introduction Inflation is back. After more than 10 years with inflation rates at around 1-2% in most developed economies, governments and central banks are now being confronted with significantly higher inflation rates. This increasing rate of cost of living has prompted a majority of the central banks worldwide, Read more…
Download PDF USA The S&P 500 touched the lowest levels since December 2020 this week, reaching an 8% loss MoM. The 10-year Treasury yield reached a 12-year-high, approaching 4%. On Thursday, the S&P 500 closed at -2.1%, due to the fear of additional rate hikes, driven by higher-than-expected employment data. Read more…
Download PDF Introduction Emerging Markets Debt is making a comeback in Google search bars. The term refers to sovereign bonds issued by less-developed countries. In fact, the words “debt” and “emerging” are closely linked: debt permits a country to raise fresh capital and with that to grow towards standards reflected Read more…
Download PDF Introduction The following article is heavily inspired by the paper “Investment Strategies with VIX and VSTOXX” (Stanescu, Tunaru, 2012) which analyzed different volatility trading strategies. The strategies are either based on a simple signal or the forecasting of spreads through GARCH models. After analyzing a more recent dataset Read more…
Download PDF USA The start of the week can be described as the calm before the storm in major US stock indices, as investors digested last week’s higher-than-expected inflation print and were waiting on the Federal Reserve to announce their policy decision on Wednesday. Accordingly, no index posted significant gains Read more…
Download PDF Industry Overview Uranium is a heavy metal that has been used as a concentrated energy source for more than 60 years. It is extracted from uranium-rich minerals, such as uraninite. Uranium ore can be mined either open-pit or underground and is then crushed and treated in a mill Read more…
Download PDF Introduction On the 25th of September Italian citizens are going to vote for their representatives in the parliament. Based on the current macroeconomic and political scenario, we analyze the effects that the elections’ results might have on the markets and propose a trade idea based on the BTP-Bund Read more…
Download PDF A persisting trend DISCLAIMER: The EURUSD pair is an exception to general FX notation. We comply with the quoting convention adopted in the industry: when the Dollar strengthens against the Euro, EURUSD moves lower, and vice versa. For charting purposes, however, we use the USDEUR time series. The Read more…
Download PDF Sentiment in global financial markets was once again largely affected by rising inflation fears. USA The week started with a continuation of the relief rally in risky assets, as sellers momentarily reduced their pressure. The scenario was quickly reversed as soon as traders’ expectations for Tuesday’s inflation reading Read more…