Tag : fixed income

Global credit has reset – but the playbook has changed. Alpha will no longer come from simply accessing spread, but from integrating credit, rates and regional insights to navigate a more fragmented market, says Ian Hutchinson, Head of Global Bond Strategies – Benchmark, L&G.

As investors rethink the role of fixed income in a more volatile and fragmented market environment, asset-based credit (ABC) is emerging as a differentiated source of shorter-duration income, structural downside protection and diversification beyond traditional corporate lending, says Sachin Patel, managing director at Neuberger.

A weaker US dollar cycle is boosting the case for emerging markets (EM) debt, with stronger fundamentals enhancing resilience and elevated yields across hard and local currency bonds creating compelling entry points for investors seeking income and diversification, according to MFS Investment Management.

Geopolitical tension and a Middle East crisis have roiled fixed income markets. Slowing growth, soaring energy costs and fiscal pressures have sent mixed signals. Portfolios seek strategies that dampen volatility while preserving capital and providing flexible, unconstrained diversification, according to BNP Paribas Asset Management.

As Saudi Arabia pursues new sources of economic growth for the years and decades ahead, investors can explore diversification and returns from exposure to the domestic fixed income market, according to a recent AsianInvestor roundtable with the Public Investment Fund (PIF), State Street Investment Management, and leading investors in Singapore.

2025 was a year of resilience and record-breaking returns − but also of extreme volatility. As 2026 gets underway, questions abound about the potential market drivers. Will further US rate cuts materialise, or will sticky inflation derail the script? Are today’s tech titans truly rewriting the productivity playbook, or are we witnessing the early tremors of an AI bubble? And could the reopening of the IPO market lift investor confidence in private markets?

Investors can no longer overlook the performance and influence of emerging markets (EM) in the global economy. After delivering robust returns in 2025 despite global volatility, selective parts of the EM debt universe deserve a bigger role in global allocations, say L&G’s Ben Bennett, head of investment strategy for Asia, and Uday Patnaik, head of Asia fixed income and global EM debt.