Scott Thiel, Chief Fixed Income Strategist, Mike Pyle, Global Chief Investment Strategist, Elga Bartsch, Head of Macro Research and Beata Harasim, Senior Investment Stratagist all part of the BlackRock Investment Institute share their insights on global economy, markets and geopolitics. Their views are theirs alone and are not intended to be construed as investment advice.

Unprecedented policy actions to limit the coronavirus shock and sharply lower valuations have improved the outlook for credit, in our view. Major central banks are committed to keep rates low and greatly expand their balance sheets. This underpins demand for corporate bonds and selected sovereign credit.

Sources: BlackRock Investment Institute, with data from Refinitiv Datastream, April 2020. Notes: The chart shows the size of the balance sheet of each central bank.

Global central banks have focused on alleviating the dysfunction of market pricing and tightening of financial conditions. The European Central Bank (ECB) has lifted the 750 billion euro cap on its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program (PEPP), paving the way for potentially unlimited asset purchases. The Fed has adopted a “whatever-it-takes” approach, including a commitment to massively expand its $4.5 trillion balance sheet, lending programs to directly support small- and medium-sized businesses, states and municipalities, and buying U.S. corporate bonds for the first time. Central bank balance sheets in key economies have reached $20 trillion, as the chart above shows, and are poised to increase a lot further. We see coupon income as attractive amid record-low interest rates, a stabilization of markets thanks to the policy response and improved valuations after the March selloff. We find this source of income in global investment grade and high yield credit, as well as euro area peripheral government bonds and local-currency emerging market debt.

Overwhelming action by fiscal and monetary authorities helps reduce downside risks to the economy – and the risk of an over-sized spike in credit downgrades and debt defaults, in our view. The risk of temporary liquidity crunches remains as the economic shutdown rolls on, and sectors such as energy face severe challenges due to the collapse in oil prices. Yet overall, we believe the recent sharp widening in credit spreads means investors are to a large extent compensated for taking on these risks. We prefer credit over equities given bondholders’ preferential claim on corporate cash flows in a highly uncertain economic environment.

The history of credit performance during past periods of quantitative easing also supports our view. When central banks step in with massive asset purchases, it tends to dampen volatility in interest rates. We believe we are in a similar situation today: The Fed has effectively committed to cap the upside in long-term bond yields, while expansionary fiscal policy may put upward pressure on interest rates. A relatively stable rate environment has often led to the narrowing of the spread between yields of credit and government bonds – and a rise in prices of credit. It also helps to have central banks as committed buyers of bonds including corporate and sovereign debt.

Yields sit near record lows, but Treasuries are still the highest yielding government bonds in major developed economies. This leaves more room for further yield declines than bonds in the euro area or Japan in the event of risk asset selloffs, in our view. On a longer-term horizon, we recognize the role of government bonds as portfolio ballast has come into question given the lower yield levels and a growing commitment of central banks to keep rates low across the yield curve.

Bottom line: We see coupon income as crucial in an even more yield-starved world. The extraordinary monetary and fiscal policy action is shaping up to blunt the coronavirus shock to the economy and markets – and central banks have stepped back in as committed buyers of credit. This, coupled with substantially cheaper valuations, paves the way for outperformance in carry assets such as corporate debt and euro area peripheral sovereigns, in our view.

Market Updates

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of current or future results. It is not possible to invest directly in an index. Sources: BlackRock Investment Institute, with data from Refinitiv Datastream, April 2020. Notes: The two ends of the bars show the lowest and highest returns versus the end of 2019, and the dots represent year-to-date returns. Emerging market (EM), high yield and global corporate investment grade (IG) returns are denominated in U.S. dollars, and the rest in local currencies. Indexes or prices used are: spot Brent crude, MSCI USA Index, the ICE U.S. Dollar Index (DXY), MSCI Europe Index, Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Broad Corporate Index, Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global High Yield Index, Datastream 10-year benchmark government bond (U.S. , German and Italy), MSCI Emerging Markets Index, spot gold and J.P. Morgan EMBI index.

Fiscal and monetary policy action to bridge the economic impact of the coronavirus is starting to take shape as the outbreak and related containment measures propagate across the globe. The initial boost to markets from the historic U.S. policy actions has faded as sobering economic data and a rising human toll have dominated sentiment. We still believe the strong policy actions are paving the road for an eventual, and strong, economic and market rebound, once we better understand the scale of the outbreak.

Week Ahead

• Monday – Tuesday: German industrial orders and output
• Wednesday: Japan machinery orders
• Thursday: University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers
• Friday: China inflation

Markets will try to gauge the pandemic’s disruption to the economy. The University of Michigan survey will indicate the short-term impact of the outbreak on U.S. consumers, a key pillar of the U.S. economy, after weekly jobless claims hit record highs and private payrolls contracted for the first time since 2017. February factory activity data from Germany and Japan should shed light on the impact from China’s lockdown on other parts of the global manufacturing supply chain.

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This material is not intended to be relied upon as a forecast, research or investment advice, and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy. The opinions expressed are as of April 6, 2020 and may change. The information and opinions are derived from proprietary and non-proprietary sources deemed by BlackRock to be reliable, are not necessarily all-inclusive and are not guaranteed as to accuracy. As such, no warranty of accuracy or reliability is given and no responsibility arising in any other way for errors and omissions (including responsibility to any person by reason of negligence) is accepted by BlackRock, its officers, employees or agents. This material may contain ’forward looking’ information that is not purely historical in nature. Such information may include, among other things, projections and forecasts. There is no guarantee that any forecasts made will come to pass. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the reader.

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