All Commentary articles – Page 128
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White papersInvestment View - The New Age of Financial Repression
Given the surge in government and corporate debt, policy will inevitably focus on making this load sustainable: financial repression, spearheaded by central banks, is set to reach a whole new level.
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White papersWhen equity becomes debt: The untapped potential of amortising-lease real estate
Pension schemes seeking alternatives to bonds may find amortising leases a compelling option, writes Luke Layfield.
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White papersSustainability: Drawing force from lines of tension
Much like a gem is forged under pressure, the ESG movement is powerful because it results from tension at multiple levels: between art and science, absolute and relative, exclusion and engagement. Francois de Bruin explores the lines of tension underpinning the investment approach to sustainability.
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White papersEvaluating the Options
Volatility is not a word that the Options market is a stranger to, but after a period of relative calm, Options market volatility has returned for the foreseeable future. The first question that comes to mind is–are the opportunities still there amid these volatile times? And if so, are emerging Options investors in a good position to go out and find them?
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White papersPolitics, economics and a pandemic: Equity markets under pressure
September saw profit-taking on equities amid investor concerns over COVID-19 as well as economic and political uncertainties. After rallying for five months, global equities fell. Further fiscal support measures are taking shape, but only slowly, leaving central banks to lobby for more haste.
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White papersFit for the future: Unboxing ESG in real assets
Recent events have highlighted the importance of the environmental, social and governance characteristics of real asset investments – not only as part of COVID-19 recovery programmes, but also as a way of futureproofing portfolios.
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White papersThe Decisive Eye - A strategic bulletin on issues and opportunities in European real assets
The average smartphone puts more computing power in our pockets than was available to the Apollo XI moon landing only fifty years ago. The pace of change is astonishing and continues to accelerate.
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White papersPresident Trump’s positive COVID-19 test shakes up election, markets
President Trump announced in a tweet shortly before 1:00 a.m. on Friday October 2nd that he and the First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS) tested positive for COVID-19. We look at the potential repercussions from this dramatic news in this Q&A.
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White papersGreen News & Views - Sustainably certified assets
Developing a sustainable future is enhanced by incorporating third-party benchmarking and certifications for all property types. There is now a proliferation of standards, ratings, and certification programs globally to help guide, demonstrate, and reward efforts to deliver sustainable, highperformance assets.
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White papersYou asked, we answer
Our Global Views team attempts to answer some of the questions often asked by our clients.
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White papersFixed income dynamics in the current monetary and fiscal landscape
The global economy rebounded quickly during the summer from the coronavirus pandemic. In this phase of recovery, central banks played a key role in the massive supply of credit to governments and companies. To tackle the health crisis, almost all governments implemented large-scale fiscal stimulus and support measures, including corporate loan guarantees. At the same time, major central banks increased their purchases of sovereign debt to levels never seen before, played a backstop role in the corporate debt market and provided cheap liquidity to banks (in the case of the ECB).
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White papersMarkets scenarios & risks - October 2020
This month, we do not amend the narrative of our central and alternative scenario. Economic data confirm a slower recovery path in line with our central scenario and Central Banks maintain their accommodative stace. We maintain the probability of our central scenario at 70%, 20% for the downside scenario and 10% for the upside.
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White papersMacroeconomic picture - October 2020
Q3 economic rebound exceeds our expectations on GDP, prompting an upside revision to our August forecasts. Yet, the deceleration in late Q3 of several indicators is keeping us from extrapolating Q3 momentum into Q4. After some softening in 2020 H2, headline inflation will move along a gradual upward trend, stabilising around 2% from mid-2021 with possible temporary overshooting. As November 3 approaches, policymakers’ focus is shifting, with an increased risk that 2020 fiscal policy will become more diluted than expected, and with little visibility on the Phase 4 deal in particular.
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White papersNotes on a crisis: from the rear-view mirror to the road ahead (part I)
Rallying credit markets at the turn of the year were followed by the swift, pandemic-induced drawdown in March, ushering in a period of heightened volatility and some of the worst liquidity conditions since the financial crisis. As we emerge from a tumultuous six months, we consider what has changed in markets and what might lie ahead for fixed-income investors.
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White papersDecarbonisation set for a boost in the EU
The EU is stepping up its efforts to tackle global warming. A new tougher target to cut air pollution should enhance the economic incentive for companies to switch to more environmentally friendly ways of doing business.
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White papersAdvantage Biden after the first Presidential Debate
President Donald Trump and Former Vice-President Joe Biden met yesterday in their first Presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio. This was an important milestone in the 2020 Presidential election, and the early indications on the morning after the debate are that it has changed the trajectory of the race in Biden’s favor. For Trump, it was one of his few opportunities to change the narrative of this election and define Biden.
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White papersGlobal Investment Views - October 2020
Back from holidays, investors are dealing with rising volatility in the equity markets and initial signs of a fall in the extreme market complacency over the last few months. After the summer overshoot, Big Tech stocks have seen a pullback and some tensions have also materialized in the US HY segment, while IG markets remained more or less flat in the last month.
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White papersScenarios Around the “Not Quite Recovery”
We’ve come a long way since March, but there’s still a long road ahead. So far, the recovery is encouraging but the permanent damage to employment remains to be seen, as does the resilience of company balance sheets.
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White papersDisruptive technology – The drivers and the challenges
Disruptive technological change will continue to proceed along multiple dimensions, through innovations in products and processes as companies harness innovations from research and development in both the commercial and academic spheres, although the two are increasingly intertwined.
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White papersThe low volatility anomaly in equity sectors – 10 years later!
A decade ago, BNP Paribas Asset Management launched the global low volatility equity strategy after undertaking proprietary research into the characteristics of low risk stocks.
