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We have talked regularly about avoiding ‘next year’s skeletons’, and this is now more pertinent given the strength of the current technical backdrop, combined with spread levels that are significantly tighter relative to this time last year.

We are cautiously optimistic for emerging-market equities in 2020. In the Chinese zodiac, the quick-witted rat is succeeding the clumsy pig, which in 2019 struggled with an American bull. With China and the US now apparently unlocking horns, things should get easier. Meanwhile, the outlook for Asian semiconductor companies remains solid.

We have already highlighted the blistering pace of bond sales in both Europe and the US, and this being met with apparently insatiable demand from fixed income investors. Since European ABS markets tend to lag broader fixed income, it seems fitting that we have had to wait another week before seeing that primary machine start to accelerate.

What to expect from EM local-currency bonds in 2020? Senior portfolio managers Thierry Larose and Carl Vermassen give you their outlook, highlighting, among other things, a universe of 95 countries across the globe to choose from.

While the European bond market was setting records last week, the US market has also begun 2020 with a flurry of transactions backed up by record inflows.

At the beginning of the year, the environment on the global capital markets is likely to continue to be dominated by the various geopolitical trouble spots. Meanwhile, our models continue to reduce the equity allocation and maintain the negative positioning in the bond sector. More information as always in the current issue of the GMO.

Kicking off the new year, we expected the new issue market to be very active and we certainly haven’t been disappointed, with the good momentum created at the end of last year – thanks to the US and China reaching a ‘phase one’ agreement and the resounding victory by the Conservatives paving the way for Brexit negotiations to move forward – allowing pent-up borrowing demand to hit the market.

As 2019 came to a close, a group of Vontobel’s specialist fixed income fund managers sat down to debate the outlook for bonds in 2020 and beyond, and to discuss the tools they have at their disposal for preserving capital and maintaining returns for their clients.

In this paper , we make the case for incorporating commodities investments into a broader multi asset portfolio by answering the three questions that clients ask us every week: 1. Why commodities? 2. Is there value? 3. How should I invest?