Municipal Bonds Offer Compelling Value Over Corporate Credit The national municipal market has been under the same price pressures as the fixed coupon taxable markets this year as markets have aggressively repriced faster interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve (Fed). Adding to these price pressures however has been the liquidation of nearly 5% [...]
Looking for more income? The unrelenting move higher in U.S. Treasury yields continued last week making it the 15th week (out of the past 16 weeks) that the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury security ended the week higher. Moreover, 10-year Treasury yields have increased by 130 basis points (1.3%) this year with a [...]
Passing the Baton LPL Research Outlook 2022: Passing the Baton is designed to help you navigate the risks and opportunities over the rest of 2021 and beyond. While the economy continues to move forward, we’re still feeling some aftershocks of COVID-19 and the Delta variant. At the same time, 2021 also saw a resurgence [...]
Knowing the different types of investment risk can help you cope with market volatility. When was the last time you checked your retirement plan balance? If your balance was less than it was the last time you checked, you probably felt a bit of pain. Everybody does. Where exactly does that pain come from? [...]
Only one-in-four Americans (27%) feel very confident that they will have enough money to live comfortably when they retire, according to the 2020 Retirement Confidence Survey Summary Report.1 While the number is up slightly from the 2018 survey (23%), it underscores a pervasive sense of uncertainty among those approaching retirement age. While there is [...]
There’s a simple word that has profound implications for savings and investing: compounding. Like a snowball that grows as it rolls down a hill, compounding provides the potential for your money to grow, reinvesting your investment earnings. It is a basic model for growth potential, and the more you invest, the greater the opportunities [...]
An old Wall Street adage says bond markets are smarter than equity markets, so when stocks encounter volatility, investors often look to the bond market for clues about the potential severity of equity market weakness. The option-adjusted spread (OAS), a key data point, adjusts a bond’s yield for any unique features of the bond in [...]
Stock returns get all the headlines, and with US equities entering their first bear market since 2008, there is good reason for that. However, fixed income may account for a significant portion, or even a majority, of many investors’ portfolios, making bond returns just as important for those investors. While we believe stock returns can [...]
The economic damage inflicted by the current COVID-19 pandemic has been unprecedented, with thousands of businesses temporarily shuttered and millions of workers out of work. While the historic drop in economic activity is real and will be reflected in the second quarter gross domestic product (GDP) numbers, some nuances in the way GDP is reported [...]
Experiencing a major pullback in stocks is never a comfortable feeling when you're investing. In times like these, we believe it can be helpful to set aside the daily headlines and keep perspective of how stocks have historically performed over the long term. After all, the majority of market participants are long-term investors, not day [...]
