THE WisdomTree BLOG
In the post-U.S. presidential election landscape, fixed income investors have witnessed a back-up in G7 government bond yields on a global basis, and questions have arisen as to whether said advantage would remain a key contributor to the UST market outlook in 2017, now that the “zero rate club” has shrunk. The best way to answer this query is to examine just who exactly has been buying and who’s been selling.
Much like our clocks this past weekend, the Federal Reserve decided to “spring forward” with its monetary policy decisions. What was the reasoning behind this latest rate hike, and where does that leave potential policy decisions going forward?
Corporate tax reform was a focal point of Donald Trump’s campaign—and Trump says lowering corporate taxes will be a priority in his first 100 days as president. Equity markets, of course, like cutting taxes—it naturally means more after-tax earnings that can be reinvested or distributed to shareholders.
The yen’s drop back down toward ¥110 per US$ is driven not just by heightened expectations for a Federal Reserve (Fed) rate hike, but also by Bank of Japan (BOJ) action to enforce the “zero upper bound” on the Japanese 10-year bond yield. In coming weeks, the greater the visibility of rising U.S.–Japan rate differentials, the bigger the force pulling the yen down should get.
The factor discussion is gaining popularity in the world of smart beta indexing. Size, value, momentum, minimum volatility, quality-these are all factors in the current discussion, and for the initiated they are becoming part of the index lexicon.