Senior Portfolio Manager Anthony Kettle’s weekly BlueBay Emerging Market Debt commentary offers readers a concise yet wide-ranging macro overview. Kettle covers markets large and small, providing insight on how financial, political, and economic developments in one region affect markets elsewhere. Here is his latest insight.
Summary
Risk markets had another positive week, driven by momentum in tech stocks combined with optimism around a Federal Reserve (Fed) interest rate cut. The S&P 500 gained +1.6% while Emerging Markets (EM) equities outperformed with returns of +3.9% and the Euro Stoxx 50 lagged with returns of +1.4%. The US rates curve twisted, with 2-year yields 5 basis points (bps) higher and 30-year yields 8bps lower, as flattener positioning was unwound. 10-year US real rates were 1bp lower, ending the week at 1.70%.
In EM credit markets, spreads were 7bps tighter for corporates and 9bps tighter for sovereigns, while total returns were up +0.4% and +0.8%, respectively. In the corporate space, the real estate and pulp and paper sectors outperformed, while the infrastructure and banks sectors lagged. In the sovereign space, high-yield names performed well, with Egypt, Colombia and Ecuador outperforming. Argentina came under pressure again as the fallout from the Province of Buenos Aires elections continues to create volatility. Elsewhere, Senegal was also an underperformer as it approaches a critical point with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In EM local markets, returns were up by +0.8%, with foreign exchange (FX) contributing +0.5% and rates contributing +0.3%. In the FX space, higher-beta currencies in Latin America outperformed, along with the South African rand. In the rates space, Colombia and South Africa outperformed, while the Asia region underperformed with slightly negative rates returns.
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