Investments

Investors are pricing in more than a 50% chance the Fed will lower borrowing costs in March, and expect the central bank's benchmark rate will fall to around 4% by the end of 2024.

Yields dropped across the US curve after data showed job openings fell to the lowest level since March 2021. Concerns about investors being too fast in anticipating policy easing have resurfaced.

But Mary Daly, president of the San Francisco bank, said it's premature to declare victory against inflation and that the central bank isn't contemplating rate cuts at all right now.

A robust selection of securitized products, including ABS, CMBS, CLOs, and agency and non-agency MBS, will be included in the new fund.

A $55 billion auction of five-year bonds saw strong demand, following a soft $54 billion sale of two-year notes. Benchmark 10-year yields dropped to around 4.4%.

In a rare glimpse into the opaque world of private credit, a recent review of credit "estimates" by S&P Global Ratings showed that the quality of debt extended by private lenders to dozens of companies whose loans are bundled into CLOs is deteriorating.

The bond market recovery has come amid some bouts of wild back-and-forth swings, yet is gaining ground since the Fed left its benchmark policy rate unchanged earlier this month.

Long-dated Treasury yields had reached the lowest levels in more than a month just a day earlier, attributed to investors and traders positioning for the end of the Fed's historically aggressive tightening cycle.

The Wall Street bank recently shifted its bond recommendation to neutral from underweight — for the first time since June 2020 — though has so far stopped short of an overweight call.

Regulators are looking into practices within JPMorgan's securities arm and investigating parts of its trading operations, according to a regulatory filing by America's largest bank.