Fixed Income

The Turkish central bank has almost exhausted its foreign exchange reserve. It has been printing money to keep interest rates lower, and sustain the credit boom in the economy. Such policies are unsustainable and the currency will plunge anew. Currency depreciation will push up market-based interest rates. Stay short/underweight Turkish risk assets. A new trade: Short 2-year local currency government bonds.

A Fed rate hike in June, July or September is likely to send our 12-month fed funds discounter toward 70bps by the date of the next hike. This re-rating of rate expectations will cause significant flattening at the long-end of the curve. Investors should enter a 5/30 flattener to profit.

There is a risk that global bond yields move higher in the near term, although we prefer to position for that move <i>via</i> cross-market spread, yield curve and inflation trades.

Markets will remain stuck in a trading range, driven by two policy feedback loops: the Fed's and China's.

Both hawks and doves at the Federal Reserve, including Chair Yellen, have stepped up efforts to condition financial markets for a rate hike as early as June.

For the month of May, the model underperformed both global equities and the S&P 500. For the month of June, the model is further paring back its risk exposure.

The latest conclusions from the sector-based (right) way to pick stock markets. Plus some important conclusions for credit markets.

This month's <i>Special Report</i> reviews the literature on equity market timing, and identifies the key indicators that historically have had the best track record. We then aggregate the indicators into an overall scorecard that should prove to be valuable for investors in these volatile times.

Risks to global growth remain to the downside. Selling pressure in cyclical markets and assets will escalate. EM currencies will make new lows versus the U.S. dollar, the euro and yen. Take profits on our long JPY/short KRW and long JPY/short SGD trades. Short KRW versus an equal-weighted basket of the U.S. dollar, yen and euro. Continue underweighting Peruvian equities.