February 2021 The bond market has struggled mightily of late with one unexpected “fire” flaring up after another, and despite demanding attention, the Federal Reserve has failed to act. Of concern has been the downward trend in Treasury Bill yields over the last few weeks. No one wants to see the yield for T-Bills […]
February 2021 Risk/Reward valuation of the Bond Market The Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond index (Formerly the Barclays Aggregate Bond Index), the widely followed benchmark measure for the broad U.S. bond market, generated a total return of 7.51% last year. That performance was primarily due to the Federal Reserve buying all manner of fixed income instruments. […]
December 2020 The Halyard Asset Management Reserve Cash Management (RCM) strategy generated 1.23% after fees and expenses for the year. That compares favorably to the 0.32% total return of the iMoneyNet Money Fund average. As of January 1, 2021, the RCM strategy has a duration of less than 5 months and a weighted average yield […]
November 2020 It’s a paradox that as we wind down this very difficult year in which the pandemic ravaged so much of our day-to-day lives that the capital markets should close out the year on such a quiet note. The bond market continues to benefit from the Federal Reserve’s open market buying and we have […]
October 2020 Since our last monthly update we have seen the Presidential election mostly come and go, have seen the coronavirus cases spike, and have learned of two successful vaccines. The country is split in terms of satisfaction with the outcome of the election, but investors are looking past the surge in the virus to […]
September 2020 The bond market was little changed in September as investors grappled with continued virus uncertainty and traders with school-aged children tried to figure out the logistics of educating their young. The latter issue made for uneven liquidity during the month which may have factored into the performance of the stock market. For the […]
August 2020 As we close out summer and the final month of the third quarter, the bond market has been relatively stable compared to the bipolar volatility of the stock market. Earlier this month, stocks suffered an unexpected downdraft after rising steadily from the March low. Speculation is that a sizeable Asian-based hedge fund had […]
July 2020 This month, as previously announced, Fidelity will close their Prime money market fund after the fund suffered during the illiquidity of the Corona virus-inspired volatility experienced in March of this year. We speculated that the decision was a business one made out of the preponderance of risk to reputation had the company been […]
June 2020 In the decades that the Halyard team has been managing the Reserve Cash Management (RCM) strategy we’ve explained that the goal of the RCM is to outperform the money market universe while avoiding the downside risk the universe has demonstrated on occasion. We endeavor to accomplish that through security selection, believing the mistake […]
May 2020 The Reserve Cash Management composite continued to enjoy the benefit of spread tightening in May, generating a total return net of fees of 0.36%. The characteristics of the composite changed little from the prior month and the average credit rate is A+. The Federal Reserve executed their lender of last resort function brilliantly. […]