(New York)

It is pretty easy to sum up what seems like it will be a forthcoming bull market in high yield bonds: “2021 will be the year of the upgrade”. That quote comes from Matt Brill, head of North America investment-grade at Invesco. Ratings agencies are reportedly on the cusp of upgrading between $100 bn and $300 bn of junk bonds to investment grade this year and next. Fund managers are trying to buy the bonds they think will be upgraded as such a move will cause a lot of arbitrary buying by index trackers.

FINSUM: There were huge downgrades last year as the pandemic wiped out prices in big parts of the sector. Now, with the economy resurgent, big upgrades look likely, which should give the whole asset class wings.

(Washington)

Biden’s new proposed $2 tn infrastructure package is a gargantuan bill (coming right after the newest pandemic relief package) that will have significant effects on stocks generally, and specific ones more narrowly. The plan is so big that it harkens back to 1950s era spending. Barron’s described it best, saying “At 10% of current gross domestic product, doled out over eight years, the plan reads like a Rooseveltian blueprint for economic and social engineering”. The big winners are pretty clear: infrastructure stocks, and more specifically construction and industrials. The Invesco DWA Industrials Momentum (PRN) and the Industrial Select Sector SPDR (XLI) are great ways to play the rise in these types of shares, with the latter offering more large-cap exposure. In terms of specific names, look for MasTec, Aecom, and Jacobs Engineering Group.

FINSUM: Biden is setting up infrastructure stocks to have a golden run over the next few years. As the package inches closer to passing, these sectors should rise.

(New York)

Let’s be clear, value stocks have been doing great over the last six months as growth stocks have started to fizzle. Accordingly, a lot of the small cap value stocks you could have found at the end of last summer have already risen strongly. However, there are a number of them that still look great buys according to fund managers. Here are a few names to explore: Citizens Financial Group, a strong regional bank; United Community Banks, a quick-growing regional bank; Sunstone Hotel Investors, a REIT that owns hotel buildings and leases them to big hotel chains; Herc Holdings, a construction and earth-moving equipment rental company; Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corp, a timeshare operator; and Ultra Clean Holdings, which makes chemicals and equipment for the semiconductor industry.

FINSUM: A bounce back in leisure travel is quite an interesting play for us, so Sunstone and Marriott Vacations look interesting, but all of these are worth a deeper dive.

(New York)

Investors have been looking for assets poised for a rally as the economy begins to open. Many specific sub-industries like…read the full story on our partner Magnifi’s site

(Silicon Valley)

Fintech Company Upstart experienced a rally reminiscent of the Reddit-fueled GameStop frenzy weeks back as its stock jumped…read the full story on our partner Magnifi’s site

(New York)

The Pandemic has shifted the paradigm for many investors as they look to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) to make up…read the full story on our partner Magnifi’s site

(Washington)

Investors may fear it, but we all know the big tax package is coming. Personal income tax rates, and likely business rates will rise. State and local taxes will be affected too. So one big question is how this will pay out for muni bonds. The answer, at least according to Franklin Templeton, is that munis are going to do great. The reason why could not be simpler: with tax rates rising, the relative value of munis rises since their tax exempt status because relatively more valuable.

FINSUM: Anxiety about the forthcoming tax plan is rising, and that is a great tailwind for munis. Couple that with the fact that Democrats are more in favor of federal support for municipalities and you have a great combination for muni bonds.

(New York)

Interest rates are still very low. So low that retirees are being starved of income. With that in mind, some are employing annuities in unique ways to help increase interest income. In particular, one strategy being employed for older investors who want to boost income in the “safety” portion of their portfolio is to use multi-year guaranteed annuities (MYGAs) to boost interest income. MYGAs typically pay well in excess of what CDs and other cash management products pay. This is because the insurer behind the annuity can invest the capital in a diversified portfolio, including longer-term holdings. MYGAs are not FDIC insured like CDs, but they do come with contractual guarantees and are often from companies with great credit ratings.

FINSUM: This is a very good strategy for certain investors who can afford to tie up capital in an annuity and are looking for ultra-safe but above-market interest income relative to similar instruments.

(New York)

Most investors had their eyes on growth, particularly in the rebound of the pandemic, but things are starting to look good for value stocks. Investors at Columbia Threadneedle Investments said that stimulus from the Fed and Government put investors' value metrics on pause, but as the economy continues to normalize and rates rise, value stocks will be the beneficiaries. Companies like Citizens Financial Group Inc., United Community Banks Inc., and Sunstone Hotel Investor Inc. are all small-cap value companies that Tugman of Columbia Thread Needle finds attractive. P/E ratios are better for small and mid-cap value stocks, and are trading at heavy discounts compared to the broad S&P.

FINSUM: As life returns to normal stocks might do the same, which would be a return of value investing and attractive price-to-earnings ratios.

(New York)

Any advisor reading ESG headlines over the last year will have seen some big numbers coming out of the sector (e.g. ESG sees $x trillion of asset flows). One such headline recently was “one third of U.S.-domiciled, professionally managed assets addressed ESG considerations as of the end of 2019”. The report, from US SIF Foundation, claimed that $17.1 tn was parked in sustainable investing strategies. However, this can be highly misleading. The reason why is the criteria for what can be considered “ESG” is quite broad. While the US SIF report did have some rigor in defining ESG, the way it conducted its study meant that any managers taking into account any number of considerations that could theoretically be considered related to ESG, were called “ESG” assets.

FINSUM: ESG is growing nicely, but there does seem to be a lot of “fudge” in the asset reporting. Part of this likely comes down to what we might call “de facto” ESG. In other words, a lot of ESG funds are dominated by tech stocks/assets. Many of these inflows have little to do with ESG imperatives (they are more pure return-driven), but can nonetheless be referred to as “ESG” since they are technically environmentally-friendly.