Contributors:
Detractor:
Positioning and Outlook:
Strategic Liquidity – The Fund continues to focus on maintaining high levels of liquidity (cash, Treasuries and Agency MBS) to provide additional flexibility and potentially deploy capital opportunistically.
Interest Rate Strategies – The Fund has modestly reduced duration in recent months as yields have rallied, with a preference for US rates. The exposure focuses on the front and intermediate segments of the yield curve where we see the most attractive opportunities. We maintain a long exposure to US TIPS to protect the portfolio against elevated inflation risks. Elsewhere, the Fund maintains a modest long position in UK duration and Australian duration, and a short position to Japanese duration, given the potential for further tightening from the BoJ.
Mortgage-Backed Exposures – We continue to like non-Agency mortgage-backed securities due to their attractive yields and risk profile. Our exposure is mainly in senior tranches of legacy, well seasoned deals, with very solid underlying fundamentals that should be resilient even in very distressed house price scenarios. We also continue to hold select higher coupon Agency MBS and senior AAA-rated tranches of CMBS indices. Both sectors provide "safe spread" along with an attractive risk profile in the event of a flight to quality. We remain focused on maintaining flexibility and ensuring a high level of liquidity in the portfolio.
Corporates – Within investment grade corporates we continue to like systemically important banks with strong capital positions and direct support from central banks, with a focus on the most senior parts of banks’ capital structures. Outside of financials, sector exposure is a function of bottom-up credit selection rather than any specific sector views. The Fund is highly selective in cash High Yield bonds, with a focus on short dated senior and secured bonds, as well as select hung loans and restructuring opportunities. The Fund continues to maintain an allocation to high yield CDX, which benefit from superior liquidity versus cash bonds.
Emerging Markets – Exposure to emerging markets remains modest. We still believe that EM assets can be a good source of carry and diversification, but we keep individual country exposures small. We are focused on select regions which provide higher yields and what we perceive is limited potential for long-term financial loss. We are generally focused on sovereigns and quasi-sovereigns, specifically on organizations that have close government ties.
Currency – Currency positions continue to be modest as currencies can be more volatile than other asset classes. We remain tactical in our currency positioning, holding a long exposure to a basket of higher carry EM currencies with short positions in select low carry EM currencies. We also have long exposure to a number of DM currencies we believe are attractively valued while maintaining short positions in other DM currencies where macro momentum is sluggish.