November 2014 November witnessed a barrage of better than expected economic data that ordinarily would have pushed interest rates higher. Instead, rates fell as bond prices rallied. In evaluating what went wrong, the obvious culprit is our misjudgment of the demand for U.S. Government securities. We anticipated that the steadily improving economic backdrop would have […]
“The junk bond market is having a hard time and the pressure will continue,” said Michael Kastner, managing principal at Halyard Asset Management. “There are no real buyers right now and mutual funds will keep seeing redemptions.” US energy junk debt sell-off spreads
Michael Kastner, managing principal at Halyard Asset Management, said a further fall in the oil price raises the prospect of more underperformance of junk-rated debt, to the detriment of the broader market. “In fixed income, once you can no longer quantify risk versus return, you head for the exit,” said Mr Kastner. With junk rated […]
“Bankers want to push deals and issuers are looking to take advantage of lower yields,” said Michael Kastner, managing principal at Halyard Asset Management. He expected a flurry of deals before the middle of December, though investors had become more discerning about credit risk, he said. “Corporate deals are not getting done as easily as […]
Michael Kastner, principal at Halyard Asset Management, investigates the impact that incoming legislative changes to money market funds could have on a family office Private Asset Management December 2014
October 2014 As we wrote last month, illiquidity and investor nervousness wreaked havoc on the junk bond market as investors attempted, en masse, to liquidate their junk holdings. That nervousness carried over into the broad capital markets in October in trading that was reminiscent of October 2008. The economy is clearly on solid footing and […]
Michael Kastner, managing principal at Halyard Asset Management says: “There is a view that the Fed will lose its nerve given all the market volatility.” Central bankers had already forfeited markets’ full confidence before this week; now they are starting to be intimidated by them. Wild price swings are flashback to crisis
“Margin is a concern and can certainly result in you being taken out of a trade,” says Michael Kastner, managing principal at Halyard Asset Management. But there are silver linings. One resides in companies’ hefty stock buy back programmes, says Mr Kastner. “I’m constructive on the share market as companies have a mandate to buy […]
September 2014 Bond investors turned cautious last month, reversing the upward trend in price witnessed for much of this year. As the Federal Reserve meeting concluded on September 17th, investors were hungry for clues as to when the FOMC would move to raise interest rates. Instead, the Fed further confused matters with the announcement that […]
Below is a chart, we think you might find interesting. We plot the total number of employees counted in the non-farm payroll survey (left scale 000s) and the number of Job openings (right scale, 000s) as tracked by the BLS’ JOLTs survey. Key observations: Number of Job openings has surpassed last previous peak Number of […]